


What Have You Done?

by sugar_sweet_poison



Category: Sally Face (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Attempted Murder, Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Cannibalism, Consensual Sex, Crying, Demonic Possession, Exorcisms, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mental Breakdown, Murder, Non-Consensual Touching, Sal Fisher and Larry Johnson Are Not Related, Self-Harm, Sexual Assault, Sickness, Slow Burn, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Torture, Vomiting, but the rest is slower, the first chapter is kinda fast pace, weird/bad things happening during sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:41:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 14
Words: 39,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27381373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugar_sweet_poison/pseuds/sugar_sweet_poison
Summary: Sal just wanted Larry to believe him. He just wanted Larry to believe these ghosts were real.Now, he's running against the clock to save Larry. Or, can he be saved at all?
Relationships: Ashley Campbell/Original Female Character(s), Sal Fisher/Larry Johnson
Comments: 49
Kudos: 70





	1. Let's Go Ghost Hunting!

Sal sets a tray of nasty school food down at the table. A meat patty that is somehow dry and greasy at the same time, flavorless mashed potatoes, and green beans that tasted like fake butter. Sal scoots in next to Maple at their cafeteria table.

Across from Sal, Larry, sitting next to Ashley, pierces his meat patty with a plastic spork. “Sal buys Gizmo cat food that looks better than this.”

Sal snorts and giggles. “Don’t say that. I don’t wanna lose my appetite just yet.”

Larry smiles and tries to take a bite of the patty. It’s got a rubbery texture that Larry has to bite hard to break.

Sal loses his appetite anyway. One stab into a greasy bean causes him to choke on a gag.

Maple pats Sal’s shoulder and laughs. “Here.” She slides a chocolate chip muffin onto Sal’s tray. “The muffins are good, trust me.”

Sal’s eyes crinkle, letting Maple know he’s smiling under his prosthetic. He sets the muffin back on Maple’s tray. “I’m not gonna take your food, but thank you.” Though when Sal looks back down, there are two more muffins on his tray. He looks up and sees Larry and Ashley both looking around, trying not to meet Sal’s eye. “You guys aren’t sneaky!”

They both break out in huge grins and laughs.

“Come on,” Sal throws the muffins back at them. “I’m not taking your guys’ food!”

“How about this?” Larry hands his muffin back over to Sal. “If you don’t accept it, I will personally kick your ass.” Larry aggressively bites into a green bean that’s just as rubbery as the meat.

Sal sighs in defeat and takes the muffin. “Thanks, Larry.”

Larry smiles sweetly at Sal then goes back to his food. Sal loves that smile. The smallest things could put the biggest smile on Larry’s face, and Sal admired him for it. Sal would make playlists of songs he knew Larry loved just to see his face light up when they played. 

Whenever they play video games, and Sal celebrates a victory, he always sees that smile out the corner of his eye. Those times, that adorable smile was just for him. It made Sal’s heart skip a beat just thinking about it…

“So,” Ashley says after spitting a green bean stem back into her tray. “Maple and I are gonna check on Todd and Chug after school.” It’s the time of the year where half of Knockfell is falling sick to the cold and flu. Todd and Chug are two unfortunate victims. “Then we’re going to the mall. What are you two doing?” She asks Sal and Larry.

“Sal and I are checking out that cabin by Wendigo Lake.” Larry sturs oil around on his empty meat plate.

Maple and Ashley exchange confused looks. “Why?”

Larry rolls his eyes and scoffs. He brings up his hands and does air-quotes,  _ “It’s haunted.” _

“It  _ is  _ haunted!” Sal defends himself. 

There is an old cabin by Wendigo Lake. Larry had asked his mother about it, and Lisa confirmed it being abandoned since she was in high school.

Sal had asked around and even visited the library to find a book about Knockfell’s history, and found something interesting. “The owner of the cabin murdered his wife and kids there!” Sal hits the table to get everyone’s attention. “So many people have walked past the cabin and heard weird shit, even though no one is ever in there!”

Larry rolls his eyes again and laughs at how silly his friend is. “Yeah, Sally Face, no one ever goes in there to prank people by making ghost noises.”

Sal narrows his eyes at Larry. “I’m serious. Todd and I actually went inside a few days ago. We searched the place top and bottom and found nothing.  _ But  _ we heard something.”

“What’d you hear?” Maple doesn’t necessarily believe in ghosts, but she still avoids that cabin like the plague.

“We heard whistling.” Sal leans over to Maple, ignoring Larry and Ashley’s scoffs of disbelief. “I was coming from the attic. I learned that that’s where the owner had killed his family then himself.”

“Oh, come on!” Ashley laughs. “I’ll believe that weird shit can happen after death, especially when they all died so horrible, but  _ why  _ do ghosts always whistle when they haunt a place?”

Sal shrugs his shoulders. “You know, Todd did some research himself and found out that some people believe that the owner was possessed.”

Maple cringes and shakes her head like Sal had said the worst possible thing. “Uh-uh, no. I don’t do possessions. That’s literally so terrifying!”

“You big baby.” Larry taps Maple’s leg with his boot under the table. “No one was possessed. Possessions and shit aren’t real.”

Sal rolls his eyes. He’s fine with Larry not believing in the paranormal, but he can be pretty dense about it. “You’re gonna be the first to get possessed, Lar.”

“Hopefully.” Larry laughs. “That’d be more fun than sitting in an empty cabin, waiting for something to happen that never does!”

  
  
  
  
  


Larry kicks the icy frost off the sidewalk and into the grass. “Are you sure you don’t want to go get food first?”

“Quit trying to stall!” Sal punches Larry’s shoulder. “Unless you’re  _ scared? _ ”

Larry laughs and shakes his head. “Sally Face, you literally had a muffin for lunch. I’m just wondering if you’re gonna pass out from hunger while we’re there. I don’t wanna have to carry you all the way back home.”

Sal bumps his hip into Larry’s leg. “I’m fine, Jackass.” Sal sees Wendigo Lake in the distance and the cabin sitting squat by the lake.

The cabin is dark and rotten from the decades it has spent unoccupied. As the boys get close to it, they can see the moss and mold growing on the wooden walls.

“Fucking sick.” Larry steps closer. “Though if we’re not killed by ghosts, we’ll definitely be killed by pneumonia!” He laughs and runs to the front door.

Sal laughs happily and runs past Larry. He runs through the living room like a kid in a candy store, eager to get upstairs where he and Todd heard strange sounds.

Larry smiles as he watches Sal. Even if he doesn’t believe in ghosts, he still thinks Sal’s the cutest when he gets excited over his hunts.

The living room of the cabin is just how Larry expected it to look. Rotten furniture littered the room. Moth-eaten drapes cover the icy and cracked windows. Every footstep the boys took caused the floorboards to creak loud enough to wake the dead. “Fuck, Sal…” Larry tucks his hands under his coat. “It’s fucking freezing in here…” Larry swears it was warmer outside in the frost-covered streets.

“Yeah, it’s pretty chilly.” Sal examines a shelf of old nick-nacks. The house has supposedly been untouched since the murders, but Sal and Todd never found any pictures of the family that lived there.

Larry walks up next to Sal and picks up a small silver figurine of an angel.

Sal’s breath gets caught in his throat as he watches Larry examine the figurine. “Larry, please don’t touch things!” He feels strange energy when it comes to some things in this house. It makes him nervous to have Larry touching everything.

But Larry snorts and flips the angel in the air and catches it. “What? Did I just get cursed?” He smirks at Sal.

God, that fucking smirk. Sal’s never gonna admit that he has a crush on Larry, as he’s also pretty sure Larry’s straight. “Please, just… Don’t touch random shit that could have mold on it.”

Larry sets the angel back on the shelf. “All right.” He gives Sal that big, goofy smile and walks across the creaky floor. “So, what’s upstairs?”

Sal walks slowly behind Larry, getting too cold to speed up. “Just bedrooms. Kids toys, and what-not.”

Larry plants his foot on the first step and the rotten wood caves in under his boot. Larry gets startled and yelps as he’s lurched forward. “Fuck!” He pulls his foot out of the damp, broken wood, and bumps into Sal.

Sal grabs Larry’s shoulders. “Dude, are you okay!?” He looks up the stairs. “That didn’t happen to me and Todd!?”

“I’m, like, twice your guys’ size.” Larry steps away from Sal and tries to calm his heart that’s beating out of his chest. “Yeah, I’m not getting up those stairs…”

Sal steps ahead of Larry and tests the second step by pressing his foot on it.

“Be careful, Bro…”

Sal waves Larry off and takes another step. He looks back at Larry. “I wanna see if I can find anything up there…”

Larry raises an eyebrow. “So, you want me to wait down here while you hunt for ghosts upstairs?”

“Just for a few seconds!” Sal tests the next step. He doesn’t fall through, so he deems it safe. “I’m just gonna see if any of the doors are closed. Todd and I left them all open.”

Larry rolls his eyes. “Fine, Dude.”

Sal giggles and goes up the rest of the stairs. He gets to the landing and looks down at Larry. “This will take thirty seconds at best!”

“Whatever, Baby.” Larry turns around and continues to explore the downstairs, not even realizing what he just said.

But Sal heard. He walks down the hallway slowly, hearing Larry calling him  _ “Baby,”  _ ringing in his head. 

All the doors are still open. Sal pokes his head into every room but finds nothing out of place since he’d last been there. Even the mold on the walls was the same. The house truly seems to be frozen in time. An old Barbie doll still lies on the floor near the white bed frame in a child’s room, and Sal can almost see Todd kneeling by the bed with one of his ghost-hunting gadgets.

“Damn.” Sal walks past the bathroom, where the sink had fallen from the wall when the wall had rotten away. “This place is falling apart big time!” Sal shouts. Expecting to hear Larry laugh or make a silly comment, Sal is only greeted with silence. “Larry?” Sal gets to the top of the stairs and starts to descend them, but he feels a cold pit in his stomach. Like someone watching over his shoulder, screaming into his ear, but their voice can’t be heard.

Sal clenches his fists, anxiety mounting inside him as the coldness grows. Like an icy, dead hand reaching into him and grabbing his soul… “It’s not real.” Sal looks over his shoulder and finds nothing. The coldness left him like a campfire lit his stomach. “Like Larry says, ghosts aren’t real.” But the anxious feeling doesn’t fade completely.

Sal jumps over the final, broken step and looks around the empty living room. “Larry?” Sal walks over to the kitchen door and finds it ajar. He knows it was shut when they got there. Sal reaches out to it, but it slams the rest of the way. The coldness returns, this time making Sal feel nauseous. He feels dread like he doesn’t want to open the door. He doesn’t want to see what’s inside…

“LARRY!!” Sal bangs his fist on the door and it swings open immediately.

Larry raises his hands in defense. “Dude, calm down! I’m just messing with you!”

But Sal is shaking. His fists are clenched and shaking badly. “Don’t do that!” He scolds Larry.

“I’m sorry!” Larry could see hurt in Sal’s eyes. Did he really scare him that bad? “I’m sorry… I was just playing around.”

Sal takes a deep breath, trying to calm himself. “I’m sorry for yelling…” Sal turns away and starts to slowly walk to the front door.

“Jesus… You can mess with me but I can’t mess with you?” Larry sounds offended.

Sal turns around to stare at Larry. “When did I mess with you?” He starts to get annoyed.

“When you were just upstairs!” He raises his voice in annoyance. “You went up there and did the whistle-thing! Then you did that fucking weird laugh!”

“Larry, knock it off!” Sal’s fists clench again as that sick, cold feeling returns. “Stop trying to scare!”

“I-I wha- I-!” Larry stutters in complete shock. “You went upstairs and did that creepy-ass whistle, I said,  _ ‘I know that’s you’, _ and you did that freaky-fucking laugh!”

“I didn’t make any noise!” Sal defends himself. “I said,  _ “This place is falling apart’,  _ and you didn’t respond! I wasn’t whistling, I wasn’t laughing,  _ you  _ were trying to scare me! AND IT FUCKING WORKED!” Sal marches to the front door. Normally, he and Larry scare each other on ghost hunts all the time. But this strange feeling that Sal had was making him mad that Larry would do this.

Larry runs after Sal. “Dude, why are so pissed?”

Sal doesn’t say anything. Larry follows him outside and near the thick forest growth. “I’m just not in the mood, okay?”

“You were just messing with me!” 

“No, I wasn’t!” 

Larry cranes his head back and looks up at the cloudy sky. He doesn’t believe in ghosts but still goes hunting with Sal because it’s fun to do it with him. He enjoys it when they try to scare each other, but now Sal is denying messing with him and treating horribly. Larry sticks his hands in his pockets and finds them empty. Fuck… While in the kitchen, he was messing with his lighter. He must have left it on the counter when he heard Sal coming downstairs. Larry sighs. “I’ll be right back…”

Sal turns around to watch Larry go back to the cabin. He can see the kitchen window from where he is and sees Larry through it. He turns away and watches the lake, thinking that, maybe, Larry’s being truthful? He’s always wanted Larry to believe him… “I wish you ghosts would do something,” Sal says out loud. “Make Larry see how serious this shit is…”

Larry’s boots creak the floorboards as he walks to the kitchen. He stops his bright yellow lighter on by the rickety sink and goes to get it… And hears Sal fucking whistling again, right behind him. “Sal, KNOCK IT OFF!” But when he looks up, Sal is still outside, looking out the lake. “What-?” Larry turns around, and behind the open door, is a pair of legs.

The legs are so long that the rest of the body disappears above the door frame. They’re red like they’ve been skinned, with only red muscle tissue attached to the bone.

Larry is frozen in place as he hears the whistle come from high above the door frame, where the head of the  _ ‘creature’  _ should be. But there’s no physical way for it to be standing there. There’s a ceiling  _ right there  _ where it is standing. But in the blink of an eye, the  _ ‘creature’  _ disappears.

The dread finally set in. Larry’s body starts to shake and he breaks out in a sweat despite the cold. He feels sick to his stomach and swallows hard to keep from throwing up. Larry slowly steps forward and wipes sweat from his brow. “Sal?” Then he hears it. That same laugh that he thought was Sal, but it’s different.

Larry’s skin curls from the high-pitched, nasally sounding laugh. It’s coming from right behind him. Larry wants to make a run for the door, but a pair of hands grab him. He turns around, thinking he’s being attacked and comes face-to-face with a horrifying sight. Larry’s frozen in fear as he stares back at what looks like a skinned human face.

Saliva drips from behind the exposed teeth, mucus drips from the nasal cavity, and blood drips from every inch of the skinless face. Its red, meaty lower jaw slower opens to reveal a slimy, black tongue that slides out like a snake.

Larry can’t look away from it. He’s like a deer caught in headlights if the car will rip the deer apart if it dares to look away. “Sal!” He manages to shout.

“Larry?” The voice sounds much farther away than just down by the lake.

“Sal!” Larry steps back but bumps into something soft. Soft fingers come from behind and caress Larry’s cheeks, inching their way to his lips. Larry can’t get himself to look away from the skinless creature, even when the fingers part his lips stick themselves in his mouth. He tastes dirt and oil as the fingers hold his mouth open.

Larry hears gently tapping on the kitchen window. “Larry?” Sal’s voice still sounds much farther than just behind a window.

The creature’s black tongue slithers father from its mouth as it steps closer to Larry.

A pair of grey hands outstretched in front of Larry’s face and lay over his eyes, blinding him. Larry can’t move as he feels the thick, slimy, and long tongue force its way down Larry’s throat. He can’t breathe as he chokes on the tongue. More hands come from behind him and grab his wrists, holding them in place. Larry gags as he feels the sickening feeling of the tongue reaching down his chest, down into his stomach.

  
  
  
  


Sal walks around the cabin to the front door. The curtains of the kitchen window were closed, so he couldn’t see in. But he heard Larry calling for him.

Sal opens the front door and steps back into the rotten smelling house. “Larry?” He sees the kitchen door open ajar again and goes to it. “Larry, I’m not falling for that again…” He doesn’t get a response. Sal opens the door and sees Larry on his knees in the center of the kitchen. “Dude, what are you doing?” He walks over to him and grabs his shoulder… But he feels cold.

Larry looks up at Sal with a strange look on his face. Like he’s… Afraid.

Sal rests his hand on Larry’s shoulder. “You feeling okay?”

Larry nods. He stands up like nothing is wrong, but now he looks like he’s going to be sick. He stumbles as he takes a step and Sal wraps his arms around him.

“Are you sure?” Sal says, sounding anxious.

Larry stares at the ground for a moment and swallows hard. He shakes his head. “I’m not okay.” His voice sounds shaky and he can’t hold himself up.

“Okay, okay,” Sal tries to help Larry up, using himself as a crutch. “Come on, I’ll get you home.”

But as they leave the cabin, Sal can’t shake the feeling of being watched. He also can’t shake the strange energy from Larry… Like there’s something else there…

“Larry?” Sal stops on the frosty sidewalk and holds Larry up. “What happened back there?”

Larry grips Sal’s shoulders, trying to steady himself. He shakes his head. “I don’t know… I don’t remember…” The words fall out like rocks rolling off his tongue. He didn’t want to say it, but he doesn’t remember what happened in the cabin kitchen.

  
“Okay… I mean, that’s okay.” Sal rubs Larry’s back and continues getting them to the apartments. He’s hoping beyond hope that Lisa won’t have to take Larry to the hospital.  _ “He’s getting the flu.”  _ Sal thinks to himself. It’s flu season, and Larry might not have gotten a flu shot. That’s all it is.


	2. Sick Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a self-harm warning.

Sal had tried to convince himself that Larry was just coming down with the flu, but it was harder when they got to the apartments.

“I guess he could be coming down with it.” Lisa has Larry hold a thermometer under his tongue. “But I don’t see how he could get it in just three seconds.”

Sal and Larry glance nervously at each other as Lisa walks off. Larry’s  _ ‘pneumonia’ _ joke earlier was fresh in mind, but they don’t want to tell that to Lisa. They know going into the old, molding cabin without masks was stupid…

Sal scoots closer to Larry on the bed. “You were probably too cold.”

Larry nods his head. He wants to agree. He just can’t remember what happened when he went back for his lighter.

Lisa returns with a mug of steaming liquid and hands it to Larry. The thermometer goes off and she takes it from Larry’s mouth. “Hmm… You don’t have a fever. But if you’re not doing better by tonight, you’re staying home. Now, drink that.” She leaves the boys alone again.

Larry takes a sip of the  _ ‘medicine,’  _ mix that Lisa made him. It tastes like honey mixed with raw molasses.

Sal pats Larry’s back. “Do you want me to spend the night?”

_ ‘Yes.’ _

“No.” What Larry says is the exact opposite of what he was thinking. But why did he say ‘no’? “I mean I don’t want you getting sick.”

Sal nods and stands up. “Okay.” But he’s a little bit hurt. There was a bit of harshness in Larry’s voice when he said ‘no.’ His voice was softer when he spoke again, but that ‘no’ cut at Sal. “I’m gonna go upstairs and see how Todd’s doing. I’ll see you in a bit?”

_ ‘See you later!’ _

__ “No.” What is he saying? Why is he speaking so harshly? “I… I think I’m gonna sleep a bit…”

Sal sucks in a breath and nods. “All right. Well, I’ll see you tomorrow, hopefully.” He leaves the bedroom without another word. His feelings are hurt from Larry’s rudeness, but it’s so out of character for him. Larry never talks to him like that.

Larry watches Sal leaves. His mind screams,  _ ‘Come back! I’m sorry!’  _ But he says nothing. Why won’t he say anything? His head is starting to hurt. Larry sets his mug on his nightstand and lies down. He knows he hurt Sal’s feelings, but he can’t seem to bring himself to chase him down and apologize…

  
  
  
  


Sal follows a figure wrapped in a blanket through an empty apartment. They get to the bedroom and a sickly Todd face-plants into his bed. Sal sits next to him and giggles. “You said you found something?”

Todd rolls around and lies on his back. He grabs his laptop from his pillow and opens it. “Yeah. I did some more research on the Bensworth family.”

The family that died in the cabin by Wendigo Lake.

Sal leans over slightly, wanting to see the computer screen but not get Todd’s germs. “What’d you find?”

“Well, the dad, Hank Bensworth, was reportedly acting like a completely different person the night he killed his family.” Todd pulls up an old picture on the website he is on. The picture is of an older couple and two young girls “Here’s Hank, his wife, Elisabeth, and their daughters, Christina and Justice.”

Sal raises a brow under his mask. “Everything I read said they had a son?”

“That’s what I wanted to show you?” Todd smiles. “Look at this!” He pulls up another picture of Elisabeth Bensworth with a baby in her arms. He reads out the article, “ _ The morning before the Bensworth family murders, the youngest son, two-month-old Rocky Bensworth, was taken to the hospital after falling under a mysterious illness.” _

Sal’s eyes widen and he breaks into a smile under his mask. He feels like they just struck gold. “What happened then?”

Todd reads the article,  _ “Rocky was discharged from the hospital three days after the murder-suicide of his family. He was raised by his grandparents in ADDISON APARTMENTS!” _

__ Now they struck diamonds. “He’d be, like, only forty now!”

“ _ Forty-three.” _ Todd corrects him. “So, Rocky could totally still be alive. So, I did some digging.” Todd changed tabs on his computer to the profile page of an elderly man.

Sal reads the name and his heart skips a beat. “Rocky Bensworth!”

Todd scrolls down the profile to a picture of a young woman with long blonde hair. She’s dressed in an old-fashion blue dress and sitting at a table with a birthday cake. “This is his daughter, Simone. She just turned seventeen a few days ago.”

“Do they live here still?”

“In Addison Apartments, no. But they’re still in Knockfell I believe.”

Sal studies Simone’s face carefully. “...Wait a minute…”

Todd smiles wickedly at Sal. “Are you seeing it? I thought,  _ ‘We’ve never seen her around the school.’  _ So, I did more digging… She’s homeschooled~.”

Sal looks at Todd with a huge smile under his mask. The birthday cake in the picture is decorated with candy animals and frosting leaves. Made to look like nature. An old-fashion loving, nature, and animals loving, homeschooled girl named  _ ‘Simone,’  _ who lives in Knockfell. “This is the girl Ashley’s seeing!”

Ashley has been seeing a girl that her friends haven’t met yet, due to her being homeschooled. But Ashley has been on 3 dates already and is liking this girl named  _ ‘Simone.’ _

“Oh, God!” Sal claps his hands. “We need to show this to Ash to make sure it’s her. I’d love to see the look on her face if she finds out her date is part of the  _ “Wendigo Murder Family!” _

Todd goes on to show Sal the more living Bensworth relatives he was able to find.

With every new person, Sal’s mood grows happier. Maybe, if things work out with Ashley, Sal can meet a member of the most notorious family in Knockfells history. In all his excitement, Sal forgets about how Larry treated him. 

  
  
  
  
  


Lisa loads dirty dishes into the dishwasher. Afterward, she goes to check on her son. Lisa feels a strange coldness as she walks through the living room. Did she turn the heater on? She goes to check, and sure enough, the heaters on. Why is it so cold? “Damn, Larry has a window open.” Her son always opens his window when he’s sick. He always feels too hot.

Lisa goes to Larry’s bedroom door and grabs the knob. It feels like ice under his skin. She twists it and opens the door to a dark room. She sees Larry in bed, facing the wall. “Larry?” She whispers and walks over to him… The window isn’t open. But the room is freezing…

Lisa starts to worry. Is the vent in here broken? Larry is definitely sick now! She gets to the bed and leans over Larry’s body. “Larbear, are you feeling all right?” She says sweetly and reaches a hand to feel Larry’s forehead.

But a hand shoots up and grabs Lisa’s wrist  _ hard. _

Lisa jumps back, startled, but the grip on her wrist tightens.

Larry sits up in the dark bedroom, his face not visible to Lisa. Something isn’t right… Even in the dark, Lisa can tell that Larry doesn’t look normal.

“Larry,” Lisa tries to pry his hand off of her wrist. “You’re hurting me!”

_ “Larry…”  _ His voice… Lisa knows damn well what her son’s voice sounds like, and that wasn’t it. It sounded dark, mean. Almost evil.

“Larry, knock it off!” Lisa shouts, and Larry releases her wrist. Lisa runs to the light switch and flicks it on, bathing the room in light. She spins around quickly, and Larry looks… Normal.

Larry sits in his bed, confused. What just happened? He was asleep and heard his mom open the door. Now, she’s standing by the door, looking startled.

“Larry, what are you doing!?” She scolds him.

Larry rubs his head. The pain has worsened. “What?”

“Why were you acting so weird? Is your throat okay?” She blames the voice on a sore throat.

“What are you talking about?” But Larry’s voice sounds normal now. He still squeezes his neck a but. “My throat hurts…”

Lisa’s startled demeanor fades into concern. She walks over to Larry’s bed and reaches for his shoulders.

“NO!” Larry twists his body around and grabs Lisa’s hands. He pushes her back, gripping her hands tightly like she was coming over to kill him.

“Larry!” Lisa shouts in shock. 

Larry realizes what he was doing and lets her go. He falls back into his bed and looks at his hands. They look… Off. Like he’s looking at someone else’s hands…

  
  
  
  
  


Sal pays for his food and walks across the cafeteria. He sits at the group’s usual table, but it’s empty at the moment.

Ashley and Maple join soon and Chug shortly after.

“Hey!” Sal pats Chug’s back as he sits next to him. “Good to see you doing better!”

Chug smiles and pats Sal’s back too. “Hey, Sal!”

The group eats their gross school food in silence for a few moments, then Chug chimes in. “Where’s Larry?”

Sal looks over to him. “He’s sick-,”

“Hey.” Larry sets his tray on the other side of the table, not sitting next to anyone.

Sal looks at him, confused. “Dude, what are you doing here? I visited you this morning, you were sick.”

Larry shrugs his shoulders. “I’ve been feeling fine since this morning… So I showed up.”

But Chug is backing away with his hands covering his nose and mouth. “Man, you better not get me sick again!”

Ashley looks skeptical. “There is no way you are skipping out on a chance to miss school, Larry.”

Larry just shrugs again and starts eating.

Sal can’t take his eyes off of him, though. Larry doesn’t look sick anymore. He looks… Dead? The dark circles under Larry’s eyes aren’t unusual, but his eyes seem empty like he’s not there. He’s pale, his arms shake when he lifts his spork to his mouth.

Ashley is noticing it too. “Larry, are you sure you’re feeling all right?”

Larry looks up at her, and he looks mean. He scowls and huffs when Ashley speaks to him. “I’m fine.” But he doesn’t mean to come off so harsh.

Everyone at the table is taken aback by his tone though. “Jeez, sorry I asked.” Ashley stabs at her food in annoyance.

It’s just like what happened with Sal yesterday. Larry wants to say one thing, be polite with his friends, but he says something else. He snaps at them and acts like a jerk. Larry drops his spork to his tray and rests his head in his hands. “I’m sorry, Ash…” It’s just the headache that’s making him moody. That’s it.

Ashley doesn’t respond. She saw the look on Larry’s face. He’s not okay. “Larry, you need to go to the nurse or something.”

“I’m fine!” Larry straightens up. He hates the school nurse, and he doesn’t want to leave. He picks his spork back up. “It’s just my head-,” 

**_“Stab her.”_ ** The voice rings in Larry’s mind as he looks up at Ashley. It’s a deep voice that makes his skin crawl, and it pounds in his head.  **_“Stab it in her eye.”_ ** Ashley’s green eyes are filled with concern as she notices the odd behavior of her friend.

“Larry?” Sal notices too. Larry’s suddenly tense, and he’s staring at Ashley like she’s the evilest thing in the world. Sal reaches his hand over to grab Larry’s, who was gripping the plastic spork so hard it’s about to snap. “Dude!”

Larry jumps up and runs to the cafeteria door.

_ “Larry!”  _ The group shouted after him.

Larry keeps running through the school halls, shoving students out of the way. He doesn’t even know where he’s trying to get, but he needs to get there. Larry finally gets to one of the boys’ bathrooms and runs inside. He finds an empty stall and locks the door.

Larry presses his back against the door and almost hyperventilates as he tries to calm his breathing. He can’t calm down. He feels so afraid and panicked. But why? Those thoughts he had were strange, but he had some intrusive thoughts all the time. But this time they were in some creepy voice…

Water drips onto Larry’s shirt. “Huh?” He feels it dripping down his face now. He hadn’t noticed he was crying. Larry wipes his face then turns around and sits on the toilet seat. Why is he crying? Why does he feel so scared? Why is everything suddenly so weird?

Larry sticks his hands in his hoodie pocket and takes several deep breaths. “I’m okay, I’m okay… I’m okay.” He feels something in his pocket and pulls it out.

It’s a purple pocket knife that Sal gave him a year ago.

He kinda forgot it was there. He flips the blade out and stares down at the knife. He strangely feels better holding this little piece of Sal. Larry flips the blade a few more times and smiles at his gift from his best friend. “You make me feel better, Dude.” He hums and turns the blade over.

**_“Cut your hand.”_ **

Larry freezes at the voice in his head. It’s so loud that he can’t hear anything else.

**_“Ten seconds.”_ **

Larry breaks out in a sweat and panics. He feels something horrible is going to happen, but he doesn’t know what. He just knows he has to cut his hand to keep it from happening.

**_“Five seconds.”_ **

Larry holds out his hand and presses the blade to his palm. He’s shaking badly, and the blade just barely pierces his skin when someone knocks on the stall. Larry drops the knife to the floor. “What!?”

“Oh, Jesus, sorry.” Someone says and walks away.

Larry presses a hand over his chest and feels his rapidly beating heart. That couldn’t have been an intrusive thought, could it? Larry never had an intrusive thought that gave him a time limit.

**_“Good boy.”_ **

Larry covers his ears. “Shut up!”

“Larry?”

He lowers his hands and stares down at a pair of blue sneakers beyond the stall, shocked. “Sally Face?”

“Are you okay in there?”

_ “No.” _

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

Sal just heard Larry yell  _ “Shut Up!”  _ in an empty bathroom, and now he’s claiming to be fine. “...No, Larry, you’re not fine.” Sal puts his foot down. “You’ve been acting rude as fuck since last night, and I just heard you shouting in an empty bathroom! Please, just talk to me! We’re supposed to be friends, but you’re treating me like shit-!”

The bathroom stall swings open, and Sal is greeted with Larry so close that his nose presses against Sal’s prosthetic.  **_“Would you shut the fuck up!?”_ **

Sal backs away in shock and fear until he hits a sink. That wasn’t Larry’s voice.

Larry watches Sal in confusion. “What are you doing?”

Sal breathes heavily, and his legs are starting to shake. “Huh!?”

Larry looks taken aback. He steps out of the stall. “Why are you over there?”

“What!?” Sal waves his arms around spasticity. “You just yelled at me!”

“I didn’t yell at you!?” But Larry remembers Lisa telling him last night that he was acting strange and creepy. But he never remembers doing it. Larry looks down at his hands, one with a slight cut on the palm. Last night, they seemed so unfamiliar to him.

“Larry?” Sal steps forward and sees the cut on Larry’s hand. His heart drops to the pit of his stomach. He believes he knows why Larry’s been acting so weird. “Were you just cutting?” Sal’s voice is barely above a whisper.

“No!” Larry shakes his head frantically. “No, no, no!” He rolls up his sleeve quickly to show Sal faded scars on his arms. “I swear I wasn’t cutting! Sal, you know I stopped!”

But Sal walks past Larry and picks up the knife from the floor. Sal examines it closely and finds a small amount of blood on it. His eyes well up with tears and his voice cracks. “Larry, no…”

“Sal! I swear I wasn’t cutting!” Larry cries. But Sal has the evidence that he was. Larry shakes and tears stream down his face. “Sal…”

Sal flips the blade in and pockets the knife. “I’m gonna hold onto this for a while, okay?” He steps closer to Larry and holds his arms out. “Come here.”

Larry runs into Sal’s arms and hugs him tightly. He cries into Sal’s shoulder, the fear fading.

Sal sniffs, and the tears fall from his eyes. He rubs Larry’s back. “It’s all right. We’ll fix this again, I promise…” He didn’t know Larry was slipping again. He’s been clean for two years and was so proud to tell Sal the pocket knife he gifted him was never used for harm. “We can do this again.”

Larry’s tears soak Sal’s shirt and he shudders with every sob. He needs Sal now. He wants to get better and knows Sal will make it so much easier. Sal always makes him feel better.

Larry moves his arm up, around Sal’s neck.

**_“Break his neck.”_ **

“No!” Larry screams into Sal’s shoulder.

“Larry, what’s wrong?”

**_“Break his neck!”_ **

“Shut up!” Larry jerks back and falls to the floor, bringing Sal down with him.

Sal yelps as he lands on top of Larry, and gets wrapped in a bearhug.

“STOP IT!” Larry screams and holds Sal tight. He hunches over and squeezes his eyes shut. “STOP TALKING!”

Sal pats at Larry’s shoulders as he’s almost crushed in his arms. “Larry, snap out of it!”

**_“Choke him.”_ **

He needs the voices to stop. He just wants the voices to stop. Larry hides his face in Sal’s shoulder and screams, trying to drown it out.

“Larry, please calm down!” Sal starts to panic. He can hear people talking outside the bathroom, wondering what’s going on inside. “Someone help!”

Larry can’t breathe. He stomps his foot on the ground as the voices scream at him to torture his best friend. He just wants it to stop. “Leave me alone!” He cries into Sal’s shoulder. “I-I can’t hurt him!”

A few teachers run into the bathroom at Sal’s call for help.

Sal tries to rub Larry’s back as the teachers pull them away. “No, no, stop!” He and Larry cling to each other like they’ll see the other again if they’re separated. “He needs me!” But a teacher drags Sal out of the bathroom while the other two hold Larry back.

Teachers knew Larry was a  _ “hazard.”  _ He used to cut in the bathroom stalls, earning him the  _ “hazard”  _ title. But he kicks and screams at the teachers as he watches Sal get dragged away. “NOOO!” He reaches for him but gets pulled back.

Sal tries to pull away from the teacher but gets set down in the hallway. He tries to run back in but is grabbed by someone else.

“What the fuck is going on!?” Ashley shouts and almost shakes Sal.

Sal looks at her for a second but turns back to the bathroom entrance, where he can still hear Larry crying. It’s a painful cry like he’s being tortured. “Larry!”

Larry sits on the floor and hides his face in his hands. He can’t hear the voice anymore, but he feels so horrible. There’s something cold, dark, and evil in him. He can’t pinpoint it, but it’s in his body. The teachers try to get him up but he doesn’t move until he hears that sweet voice calling him.  _ “Larry, I love you!” _

The words left Sal’s mouth before he could even think, but he has a strong feeling he needs to say it. Ashley is standing by him, stunned to silence. “I love you…”

Larry moves his hands away from his face. He sniffs and wipes the tears from his eyes. He feels… Lighter. “I love you too!” And he does. He loves Sal. He’s loved Sal for so long. Hearing him say it first made this coldness fade.

  
Sal’s hands tremble badly as he hears Larry’s response,  _ “I love you too!” _ But his heart flutters and his stomach flips. “Good.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a heads up: Shits gonna hardcore hit the fan before things start getting better. This chapter is a bit of a peak on what Larry's gonna be dealing with in the future.
> 
> Also; if you've read my past fics, you might already know of my OC, Simone, who is dating Ashley. Well, What Have You Done was the original fic that I created Simone for!


	3. A Lover of Sorts

Larry woke up the next day to someone petting his hair. It feels nice and calming. It makes him want to fall asleep again. “Hmmm~,” He reaches up and grabs the soft hand that was stroking his hair.

Sal sits on the edge of Larry’s bed and giggles when Larry grabs his hand. “Did that wake you up? I’m sorry.” Sal pulls his hand away and rubs his thumb down Larry’s temple.

Larry smiles and leans into Sal’s gentle little touch. “It’s fine…” He speaks quietly. In this sweet moment, the previous hasn’t happened at all.

The school called Lisa yesterday, and Larry was forced to go home after that episode. Larry has come to terms that his mental health is slipping again. It’s the only explanation he can find for what’s been happening.

Sal was kept awake all night, staring at the purple pocket knife on his nightstand. It broke his heart, again and again, to think Larry wasn’t okay. After school, Sal talked to Larry about his mental health, but not even Larry knew what was happening.

The episodes and intrusive thoughts had hit so suddenly. Sal and Lisa talked after Larry went to bed, and they discussed the possibility of him having bipolar disorder. It’s the best they could think of until they can get him in therapy again.

But now, there’s something else from yesterday that was tugging at the back of Sal’s mind. He had told Larry he loved him, and Larry said the same thing. Was that his sensitive state talking, or did he mean platonically? All Sal knows now is Larry looks cute as hell being pet like a kitten.

Larry rolls over, and his hand flops into Sal’s lap, landing dangerously close to his groin. “Hi,” He hums and sheepishly snuggles closer to Sal.

Sal sucks in a breath and continues petting Larry’s hair. “Hi,” He grabs Larry’s hand and moves it down to his knee. “Did you have a bad dream?”

Larry nods his head. “Yeah… How’d you know?”

“You looked scared.” Sal shifts his position to move his legs onto the bed, and Larry on instinct pulls him closer and rests his head in Sal’s lap. Sal wanted to talk about the  _ ‘I love you’s’ _ yesterday, but Larry’s already acting like Sal’s his lover or something. He’s never really been this touchy before. “Um-,” Sal forgot what he was going to say. He got too distracted by how precious his sleepy friend is. “Uh… Oh! What was your bad dream about?”

Larry’s face twisted up a bit as he tried to remember his dream. “It was just… Like, a really tall, skinless person… Just, watching me…” He looks up at Sal’s blank prosthetic, “I don’t remember too much, but that freaked me out…”

Sal hums and caresses Larry’s cheek. “You looked really scared when I got here.” That’s why he started petting Larry’s head. He was curled up in his blankets, shivering. His face was twisted in a scared and sad expression, and Sal knew he had to save him from a nightmare.

Larry smiles up at Sal. “Thanks for waking me up.”

Sal gets taken aback. Larry’s  _ thanking him _ for waking him up? In the years that  _ anyone  _ has known Larry, they can confirm that he won’t thank you for waking him up. He barely sleeps in the first place, so waking him up is a guarantee to get you yelled at. “You’re welcome.”

Larry pushes himself up with a groan. Losing Sal’s warmth but him in an instant grumpy mood. He stretches his arms over his head then brings them back down… Over Sal’s head.

Sal flinches when Larry’s arms wrap around him but scoots closer and hugs him back. He giggles when Larry presses his cheek into his shoulder. “Is this new Sleepy Larry behavior? You just turn super cuddly?”

Larry smiles and giggles, “Sure.” He moves back to see Sal’s masked face. “It just makes me feel better.”

Sal laughs and pats Larry’s back. “Good. ‘Cause I’m good at cuddling.” Sal swings his legs off the bed and stands up. “But we need to talk a bit… About yesterday.”

The look on Larry’s face makes Sal’s pulse pick up. He looks like a kicked puppy as he looks up at Sal. “We already talked, didn’t we?”

“Yes,” Sal sits back down and rubs Larry’s arm. “We talked about your mental health with your mom, but this is something more personal.”

“What is it?”

Sal takes a deep breath, not knowing how to start. “Yesterday, when we were getting dragged out of the bathroom… And I said,  _ ‘I love you,’  _ and you said it back…”

“Yeah?” Larry raises an eyebrow. His face suddenly turns fearful. “Did you-... You meant, like, you love me as a friend? Or was it different?” Larry certainly meant more when he said he loved Sal. “‘Cause, you know, I’m totally cool with whatever you meant. I love you as a friend, but, like-,” Larry freezes. He doesn’t know where he’s going with this. “I mean, you’re a great friend, and I love you for it, but if you wanted to-,” He doesn’t know where this is going either. Larry straightens up. “I think you-,”

“Stop it, Larry.” Sal raises his hands to make him stop talking. The corners of his eyes are crinkled so Larry knows he’s smiling big. “You didn’t mean it as a friend, did you?”

“I mean, yeah!” Larry speaks louder than necessary. “I think you’re great as a friend, but I wouldn’t mind seeing what you’re like as a lover- Not a lover! A date of sorts! I wouldn’t mind dating you!” Larry tries desperately to save his ass in case Sal doesn’t have those feelings, but he’s failing.

Sal laughs and leans closer to Larry. “Larry, please-,”

“I didn’t mean to say,  _ lover. _ ” Larry clarifies. “I’m just saying if you asked me on a date, I’d say  _ ‘yes.’ _ ” 

Sal narrows his eyes playfully. This should be fun. “Are you saying you want to date me?”

Larry’s eyes widen and his hands start shaking for unknown reasons. “I’m saying, like, how you dated Ashley for a while! You two went on a few dates, then decided you were better off as friends!”

“So you want to see if we’d make a good couple or if we should stay friends?” Sal tilts his head. He knows it’s mean to be messing with Larry like this, but he’s so damn adorable and flustered.

“Sure!” Larry finally gets the words he’s been looking for. “I mean, when you and Ash were going on dates, I thought, you and I get along so well, maybe it’d work out for us-,” Larry stops and clenches his fists, “I don’t know when to stop talking…”

Sal throws his head back laughing and it makes Larry’s heart skip a beat. “Larry, you’re amazing!” Sal moves closer and grabs Larry’s shoulder. “Here, I’ll say this before you talk again; Larry, will you go on a date with me?”

Larry doesn’t speak. He takes a breath and leans into Sal, hugging him. “Yes. Thank you for shutting me up.”

Sal laughs and rubs Larry’s back. “You’re welcome!”

  
  
  
  
  


A few hours pass and the boys are back from school.

Larry sways slightly in his chair as Sal runs a comb through his brown hair.

Sal grabs Larry’s shoulders to steady him. “Stop swaying. You’re gonna fall over!” 

Larry whines but straightens up. “It feels nice.”

Sal scoffs at the comment. “You’re just tired. I know you didn’t sleep last night.” Sal combs through Larry’s hair again, and Larry back into him. “Larry, please sit still.”

Larry reluctantly leans forward on Sal’s command. He didn’t sleep well, of course. He rarely does. Larry hunches over and Sal finishes brushing out his hair.

“Okay, done.” Sal pulls long strands of hair out of the comb, along with dirt and muck. “Jesus, Larry, this is not all from today.”

While at school, Larry fell into the mud during P.E. His hair was coated in the dirt for hours. That’s just what happens when the teacher insists on outdoor P.E while it’s raining.

“When did you wash your hair last?”

Larry has to think about it for a moment. It’s about three days, right? Or is it four? “Uh… Three days?” He smiles innocently at Sal.

But gives him a disapproving look. “I’m guessing you’re gonna make me help, right?”

Larry laughs nervously and glances to the side. “If you could help, I mean.”

There were two instances when Larry’s mental health wasn’t the greatest and he wasn’t bathing enough, that Sal made him bend over the sink and washed his hair. It had gotten way too greasy than Sal was willing to ignore. But afterwards, Larry found out that can wash his hair better than he can. His hair was soft and fluffy, and he couldn’t stop playing with it.

Larry’s never been able to get his hair like that again. Not even when it was just as greasy as before. (It just felt dry afterwards.)

Sal rolls his eyes and grabs Larry’s arm, pulling him up. “Come on, you damn baby. You’re lucking I’m a lovely person.” He says the last part with sarcasm.

Sal leads them to the kitchen and makes sure the sink is empty. He then has Larry bend over it while he retrieves shampoo and a towel. Sal throws the towel over Larry’s shoulder and pulls all his hair up. “It’s getting really long, Bro.”

Larry hums in response. “Better for headbanging, Dude.”

“Better for me to pull on when you piss me off.” Sal turns on the warm water and uses the sink hose to wet Larry’s hair.

Larry closes his eyes as a few streams of water drip down his face. “You know how dog-people always give their dogs pretty normal names, and cat-people give their cats the most bizarre possible names?”

Sal laughs and puts the hose back in place. “What are you talking about?” Sal pours shampoo into his hand and gets to scrubbing Larry’s hair.

“You know, like Ash’s dog? Keegan. It’s a normal name.” Larry hums a bit while Sal tugs slightly at his hair. “Meanwhile, we’ve met that lady with a cat named,  _ ‘Scarecrow Billy.’ _ ”

Sal rolls his eyes again and smiles. “Where is this coming from?”

“I just realized it.” Soap starts to drip down Larry’s forehead, but Sal wipes it away before it gets to his eyes. “You just don’t really meet dogs with really bizarre, out there names.”

Sal giggles and pulls the hose back out to rinse Larry’s hair. When he’s finished he grabs the towel from Larry’s shoulders and ruffles up the wet hair. “Okay, you’re done.”

Larry straightens up and towels his hair. “Thank you, Dear~.” He says in a sing-song voice and smiles sweetly.

Sal smiles and punches Larry in the arm.

“Ow!”

“Please try to wash your hair more often, all right?”

Larry’s lips thin out and he glares at Sal a bit. “But I like it when you do it. You do something weird, Dude, I can’t explain it! You make it feel softer and shit.”

Sal shakes his head and sighs. “You’re saying I need to teach you to wash your hair?”

Larry’s eyes widened in realization. That is pretty much what he just said. “Well, no-,” Larry breath gets caught in his throat when Sal grabs his hand.

“I’ll help you with taking better care of yourself.” He smiles kindly and sways Larry’s hand in his. “But just until you’re doing better on your own. Okay?” He watches Larry closely with those bright blue eyes.

Fuck, those eyes make Larry feel butterflies in his stomach. “Okay.” He nods. He’ll be fine. Sal wants to help him get better, and he knows he will. He just needs some time. Time spent with Sal always makes him feel good, so it’s no wonder a crush developed… He runs a hand through his wet hair. “Um, about that date tomorrow…”

“Yes?” Sal laughs. He noticed how flushed Larry’s face suddenly got before speaking. He’s so adorable.

Larry rocks on his feet. “Uh, what exactly do you want to do tomorrow?”

Sal shrugs his shoulders “I don’t know. We could see a movie, we could get dinner, we could go anywhere you want.” Sal turns his back and starts walking back to the bedroom. “Or, you know, we could just hang out here!”

Larry follows after him in confusion. “Hang out here? How would that be a date?”

“It’ll be different than when we normally hang out.” Sal opens the door and goes to sit in a beanbag chair. “We’ll play video games, have some snacks-,”

Larry kneels in front of Sal. “That’s not different from what we normally do!” He laughs.

Sal shrugs. “We can make-out afterwards.”

Larry freezes and his face turns bright red. “...What?”

“I’m joking!” Sal laughs. “I just wanted to see if I could make your face turn red! And I did!” Sal throws his arms up in victory.

Larry sits on the floor and backs away from Sal slightly. His face feels hot at the thought of making-out with Sal… But he smiles at Sal, who continues laughing. He has a date with this person and the butterflies return. Sal is so wonderful and it makes Larry so nervous.

This date is going to be hard to get through.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please criticize all you want. I'm still trying to improve my writing.


	4. It's Just The Flu

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Blood, sickness, and mild suicidal thoughts

On Saturday morning, Larry had to drag himself out of his bed. He felt physically sick now, but he has a date with Sal tonight. He doesn’t want to cancel that! He’ll just take some medicine and power through. But powering through seems like it will be a challenge.

Larry rolls out of his bed and falls to the floor. All of the pain hits him at once. His head is throbbing, his throat is so sore that he can’t speak, and his entire body aches. He whines and curls into a ball on the floor with his blanket wrapped around him.

Someone knocks on his door. “Larry?” Lisa’s voice chimes from the other side. “What was that thud?”

Larry can’t get any words out, his throat hurts so bad. “Mom…” He wheezes out. His nose is stuffed up and runny. He’s shivering and sweating at the same time. He’s miserable.

“Larry, I'm coming in!” Lisa opens the door and gasps when she sees her son curled up on the floor. “Larry, what happened!?” She runs to him and pulls the blanket off of him.

Larry keeps his eyes closed as the light hurts them. But he feels Lisa’s cold hand press against his forehead, and it makes his shudder.

“Oh, God, you’re burning up.” Lisa stands up and grabs Larry’s shoulders. She manages to get him back into his bed. “Stay here, I need to get the thermometer.” She runs out of the bedroom, leaving Larry alone.

Larry curls back up in his bed. Guess he wasn’t better after his sick day at school. 

**_“It won’t stop.”_ **

“Shut up-,” Larry gets cut off by a cough. The cough feels like it rips his throat apart. He feels liquid spew from his mouth as he coughs. “Oh, gross…” He wipes what he thinks to be saliva from his lips, but the back of his hand is painted with crimson red when he looks down. Larry bolts up, getting dizzy as he does so, in fear of what he’s seeing. “Mom…” He squeaks.

Lisa returns with the thermometer. She sees the fearful looks on her son’s face and her heart stops. “What?” She quickly runs over to the bed.

Larry holds his hand out to her. 

Lisa takes Larry’s hand and examines the back of it carefully. “What?” She doesn’t see anything wrong.

Larry pulls his hand away and examines it himself. There’s no blood… He wipes his mouth again and gets saliva this time.

“Did you hurt your hand?” Lisa reaches for him and rubs the back of his hand.

Larry shakes his head. He truly thought there was blood after he wiped his mouth.

“Hmm.” Lisa turns on the thermometer and sticks it in Larry’s mouth. “You had a three-year streak going, Honey.” She laughs gently.

While all of Knockfell was falling under the weather this time of the year, Larry has kept well for the last three years. He forgot how much being sick sucked-ass.

“Would you like some tea?” Lisa asks and pets Larry’s back gently.

Larry nods his head. He feels bad for having his mother do things for him but feels like shit right now.

“Does your head hurt?”

Larry nods.

“Your throat?”

He nods again.

“Stomach?”

He hadn’t been bothered by it, but he still nods his head.

“All right, I know just the mix for you!” The thermometer beeps and Lisa takes from Larry’s mouth. “All that, plus a fever. I’ll be right back.” Lisa leaves the bedroom to make Larry’s tea mix.

Larry lies back down and curls back up. He feels sleep tugging on his body, begging him to drift back off. It washes over him, wanting his body to heal itself in sleep. He feels the warmth and the cold grip at his body as he slips in and out of consciousness.

_ “It hurts…” _

Larry’s own voice cries quietly in his head.  _ “It hurts...It hurts!” _ “Just be quiet…” Larry says out loud to himself. Everything hurts, but he just wants to rest.  _ “I want to die…”  _ “No I don’t…” Larry pulls his blankets up to his ear. “I don’t wanna die.” He sits in silence for what feels like hours. He hears… Something strange. He hears the silence, but it’s loud. Like… A horn? A bell? That’s it, like a bell chiming.

Larry buries his ear deeper in his pillow and covers his other ear with a blanket. It drowns out the bell only slightly.

  
  
  
  
  


Sal leans over the kitchen counter with a pop-tart in his hand and his phone pressed against his ear. This is his third attempt at calling Larry this morning. Once again, it goes to voicemail. Sal sighs and dials a different number.

“Hello?” Lisa picks up quickly.

“Hey, Lisa. It’s Sal. Is Larry there?”

“Hi, Sal! Yes, he’s here, but he’s not doing well. He’s got a fever and says  _ everything  _ hurts.”

_ Fuck _ . “All right, thanks, Lisa. I’ve been trying to call him for a while, and he’s not picking up.”

“Yeah, I just went to check on him, and his phone is dead. He might have forgotten to charge it last night. Hey, if you want to drop by real quick, I’m sure Larry would appreciate it!”

“That’s what I was just thinking.” Sal laughs. “All right, I’ll be down in a minute. See you, Lisa.”

“Bye, Sal!”

Sal hangs up his phone and pockets it. Looks like their date is postponed. “Dad, I’m going down to Larry’s!” Sal doesn’t hear a response. “...Oh! Right!” His dad went to the grocery store. Henry’s been cleaning himself up recently, and Sal’s not used to him getting up and going so early in the morning. (It’s only 10:30 a.m.)

Sal straps on his prosthetic and heads out. He gets to the basement and goes to the apartment door. He knocks a few times but doesn’t wait for anyone to the door before he walks right in.

Lisa looks over at him from the kitchen, where she’s making some sort of tea. Sal can smell all sorts of different teas from over there. “Hi, Sal!” She chirps happily. 

Sal waves at her. “Is Larry in his room?”

“Yeah. But I think he fell back asleep.” Lisa picks up a pot and pours the tea into another, bigger pot.

“Okay, well, I’m gonna check on him real quick. Make sure he’s all right.” Sal walks over to Larry’s bedroom and opens the door ajar. He doesn’t see Larry, just a mound of blankets curled into a ball on his bed. He hates to say it, but it’s kinda cute.

Sal walks over to the bed and leans over the mound. He sees strands of long, brown hair sticking out from under the blankets near the pillows. Sal runs his hand down the side of the blanket, not really knowing what part of Larry this is, but still wanting to comfort him. “How are you doing?” Sal whispers. He doesn’t expect a response, thinking Larry’s asleep, but the blankets shift until Larry barely pokes his head out.

Brown eyes are the only thing visible as Larry hides the rest of his face in the blankets.

“Aw,” Sal brushes a strand of hair away from Larry’s forehead. “Poor thing…” Larry’s eyes are red. Not from crying, but from tiredness and sickness. “Have you eaten anything yet?”

Larry shakes his head. He shifts the blankets down to his shoulders and scoots closer to Sal. He wants to be closer, but he doesn’t want to get Sal sick. He’s still mad that their date clearly isn’t going to happen.

Sal pats Larry’s back and sighs. “Do you think you can eat something?”

Larry shakes his head again. He reaches up and strokes his throat, letting Sal know it hurts too much to eat.

“Hmmm…” Sal rubs Larry’s shoulder then steps back. “Think ice water can help your throat while your mom gets that tea ready. I’ll be right back.” Sal walks out of the room.

To Larry, it feels like Sal’s leaving him completely. Watching him leave hurts. Like someone just stabbed him in the gut. He needs Sal here… No. No, fuck that. He’s not going to be that dependent on him. Sal has issues of his own, and he doesn’t need to drop everything to care for a grown man. Larry needs to be there for Sal just as much as Sal is there for him. He can live without seeing Sal for a while… He’ll be fine…

Why does his chest hurt thinking about that?

Sal returns to the kitchen, where Lisa is brewing the last tea bag for Larry’s drink. “Hey, I need some water for Larry.”

“Oh,” Lisa opens the cabinet and pulls down a cup for Sal. She’s not that much taller than him, but she can still reach up there better.

“Thank you.” Sal takes the cup and fills it with ice. He gets the water and quickly takes it back to Larry’s room. “Okay, here we go.” Sal sits on the edge of Larry’s bed and hands him the cup.

Larry sits up a bit and takes the cup. “Thanks…” His voice is rough and dry, and just that one word hurt to speak. He takes a sip of the ice water, and it soothes out the pain in his throat.

“Maybe after the tea, you’ll feel better enough to eat.” Sal pats Larry’s thigh. “I can take care of today while Lisa’s working, okay?”

Larry shakes his head. He won’t be that dependent on Sal. “I can take care of myself.” His voice is still rough from his sore throat.

Sal scoffs. “Last year, when I got the flu, you babied the fuck outta me. It’s your turn to be the baby.” Sal pats Larry’s thigh again and stands up. “I’ll be back.” Sal leaves the room and passes by Lisa, who has a large mug of tea.

“Okay!” Lisa approaches Larry’s bed with a sweet-smelling mug of tea. “You’ve got a few different things going here, but they should help with everything!” She hands the hot mug off to Larry.

Larry carefully takes a sip of the hot liquid. It’s sweet, tart, fruity, and minty all at the same time. The steam of it heats his face but it smells nice. “Thanks, Mom.” He smiles up at her.

Lisa smiles and ruffles Larry’s hair. “No problem! Now, I have work to do in the building, but you can call me back down if you need-,”

“No need!” Sal returns to the room with a humidifier and a wet washcloth. “I’ve got nothing to do today, so I’ll stay here.”

“Oh, Sal, there’s no need-,”

Sal raises a hand to silence Lisa. “You already do a lot here. I’ll handle this.” His eyes crinkle under the holes of his mask, letting Lisa know he’s smiling. “Now, I don’t wanna be rude, but get going before you get sick too!”

Lisa smiles at Sal and laughs. She ruffles Sal’s hair and walks out of the room. “I’ll be fixing the heater in Mrs. Gibson’s apartment. Seriously, call if you need me!”

“Will do!” Sal says, but he shrugs his shoulders at Larry, letting him know he has no plans to interrupt her. Sal sets up the small humidifier on Larry’s bedside table. “Okay, now!” He claps his hands. “Breakfast! Do you think you could eat something cold?”

Larry shrugs and snuggles more into his blankets. But the humidifier clears out his sinuses quickly, and his nose starts to run like crazy.

Sal runs off and returns with tissues for him. “Here you go.” He moves the small bedroom trash can closer to the bed for the tissues. “Now, can you eat a bowl of cereal?”

Larry wipes his nose and throws the tissue in the trash can. He nods his head at Sal. “Yeah, maybe.”

“Cereal and cold fruit? I know you guys got some in the fridge, and I can cut them up for you.”

“You don’t have cut them-,”

Sal holds his finger up to Larry and shushes him. “Hush, child, I’m in charge here.” Sal backs out of the room, and Larry can feel that cheeky smile under the mask.

Sal disappears around the corner, and Larry lies back down. He feels a little bit better, and it helps that Sal’s there. He just knows how to make people feel better. Larry is smiling when he sits up to grab his tea, and he can hear Sal in the kitchen.

Sal’s voice chimes out, “I’m cutting  _ oranges!” _

Larry giggles at him. He’s been acting so much happier in the last few months. He’s doing better with his own issues, and Larry couldn’t be more proud of his progress. Larry reaches to his side table for his tea without paying attention. He grabs the handle of the mug but feels another hand there.

Larry jerks his hand back, but he doesn’t see anything over there. He imagined it.

Sal returns shortly after with a bowl of cereal and a plate of chopped up oranges. He gets to the bed but freezes. “Are you okay?” Larry looks startled by something, and he’s staring at his bedside table.

“Yeah… That I felt something over there.” Larry looks up at Sal and takes the food from him. “Thank you-,” He’s cut off by a coughing fit. The coughs rack his body, causing him to shake as he hides his mouth in his hands.

“Larry!” Sal grabs the ice water from the table. “Larry, Larry drink this.”

He moves his hands to grab the cup. But…

“LARRY!”

He feels something wet in his hands, and a string of something connects them to his lip… That string is a dark red. 

Larry starts to shake as he looks down at his blood filled hands. Sal watches in horror as blood drips down his friend’s chin. Larry starts to shake badly, and tears slip down his face. “Sally…”

  
  
  
  
  


At the hospital, Sal paces the exam room while Lisa is sat next to Larry.

“You thought you coughed up blood earlier?” Lisa questions her son.

Larry nods his head. “When you went to get the thermometer.” His voice is hoarse and it sounds painful to speak. It  _ is  _ painful to speak, which is why Lisa shushes him.

“Don’t say anything else. Okay, but there was no blood when I got there?”

Sal walks up to the exam bed where Larry is laying. “Um… Lisa?” He has to tell her they went to the cabin. The moldy air quality obviously did something to Larry.

“Yeah?” Lisa looks up at Sal.

But the doctor enters the room before Sal can say anything.

Sal spins around and looks at the doctor. “Well?”

The doctor actually shrugs her shoulders as she goes over her papers with Larry’s test results. “I’ve never seen anything like this. He appears perfectly fine.”

“Fine!?” Lisa’s eyes are wide with shock. “How is he fine!?”

“I have no idea.” The doctor studies the papers carefully. “He tested positive for the flu, but that’s it. He has no tearing of the throat, chest, lungs, stomach, or anything else of the sort. There’s no reason for him to have coughed up blood, and, by all means, no signs that he coughed up blood at all.” The doctor looks highly confused as he sets the papers down on the counter. “He seems to be healthy, despite the flu.”

Everyone stares at the doctor, dumbfounded.

“H-how?” Sal shakes his head. “His hands were filled with blood. And he’s got big hands!”

“I don’t know what to tell you.” The doctor leans back on the counter. “We could try redoing some tests, see if something was a false negative, but I don’t think anything did.”

After almost two hours of carefully done tests, they wouldn’t think anything was wrong.

“Okay…” Lisa turns back to a startled looking Larry. “So, you’re fine…”

Larry thought he’d be leaving with some horrible diagnosis, but he’s only got the flu… And there was no evidence that he coughed up blood in the first place? That just doesn’t sound right. “All right…” He sits up on the exam table. “Can I go home?”

The doctor runs a hand through his hair. “I don’t see why not…” The doctor is concerned, but he didn’t find anything wrong. Larry did indeed show up at the emergency room with his hands and mouth coated in blood, but they can’t find anything wrong with him.

After a few more minutes of confused talk, Lisa and Sal lead Larry out of the hospital. 

Larry sits in the back of the car with Sal up front, not wanting to get him sick. Now confirmed that he has the flu, he’s much wearier of everyone else.

The drive back home is silent, but everyone is thinking the same thing. How the hell is Larry  _ ‘perfectly fine?’ _

“You know,” Sal looks back at Larry. “Maybe… It was throw up? I’ve thrown up from coughing, and I’ve thrown up and thought it was blood.”

Larry nods along. He doesn’t see how it could have been vomit, but it’s the best thing they can come up with. This is all too damn confusing.

When they get back to the apartments, Larry immediately curls up in his bed. He still feels terrible.

Mr. Addison gave Lisa the rest of the day off when he heard what happened, so Lisa is staying in the apartment.

Sal helps Lisa with making food for Larry, but neither of them talks while doing it. The tension in the apartment is thick and makes everyone nervous. But, everything is okay.

Everything is okay…

**_“It hurts…”_ **

Larry hides his face in his pillow, soaking it in tears. His voice is so loud in his head. Everything hurts…

“Hey.”

Larry looks up with red, tearful eyes to meet Sal’s concerned ones.

“Here,” Sal sets a plate of warm food on the side table and reaches for Larry. He wraps his arms around Larry’s back and holds him close while Larry rests his head on Sal’s shoulder.

“Sally…” 

“Shhh,” Sal runs his fingers through Larry’s hair and whispers to him. “It’s okay. I’m gonna stay right here… I’m not leaving you.”


	5. I Hate Gym Class

It’s dark. He can’t see more than a few inches in front of him. He sticks his hand out but the darkness swallows it.

Larry feels a cold chill run up his spine. He tries to move his feet, but they seem to be stuck to the floor. Where is he?

_“Help me!”_

A familiar voice screams out, far off in the distance.

_“Please, help me!”_

“Sal!?” Larry calls out for him.

_“Larry! Please, help me!”_ Sal’s voice is agonizing. Larry can hear the pain in him clear as day.

“Sal, where are you!?” Larry looks around, trying to find any signs of light or Sal. He hears a painful, torturous scream from far off. “SAL!?” Larry’s feet finally move, and he dashes off to where he could hear Sal. 

But another agonizing scream comes from behind him. Larry turns around and runs to it. _“HELP!”_ Sal’s voice rings louder, but it’s coming from a different direction again.

Larry spins around and runs in every direction, trying to find his friend. WHat’s happening to him? But suddenly, Sal’s cries and screams are cut off by gut-wrenching squelching and cracking sounds.

He can hear Sal choking and gurgling on liquid as the cracking finally stops. “SAL!?” He can hear soft, weak groans of pain, but a horrible crushing sound finally silences Sal.

Larry can’t breathe. He can’t move. He starts to shake and cry, but no noise leaves him. He can only hear a distant dripping sound… Sal’s blood?

But suddenly, the ground beneath him caves in, and Larry fall directly into water. He still can’t move. He struggles against the water, but he can’t move enough to swim up. He’s going to drown.

The pressure of the water pulls Larry down. He doesn’t feel fear anymore. He’s accepting his fate. As Larry’s lungs burn from the lack of air, he breathes in the water to speed up the process. All he wants right is to be with Sal. He can have that in death…

_“Hey, it’s okay.”_

Larry opens his eyes and finds himself in his bed. His blankets are tangled up from him tossing around.

Sal stands over the bed, leaning over Larry and rubbing his back. “Did you have a nightmare?” Sal sits on the edge of the bed and wipes a tear from Larry’s face. Sal was sleeping on the couch in the living room when he heard Larry crying. It wasn’t until a few seconds ago that he realized Larry was asleep.

Larry’s entire body feels hot, but he grabs at his blankets to bundle himself up. He can’t stop the sobs that want to leave him, so he buries his face in Sal’s shoulder.

“Oh, Larry…” Sal rocks them gently. “It’s okay, it’s okay.”

  
  
  
  
  


School on Tuesday morning was as boring as usual, but some had screamed in the hallway while Sal was in biology class, which caused dumb rumors to spread instantly.

Maple leans against the locker next to Sal’s. “Someone told me during math that a girl was stabbed.”

Sal puts his books in his locker and closes it. “I got told that the power went out in a classroom. That’s all.”

Maple shrugs and laughs. “I believe that more.”

The two walk to the gym, parting off to the locker rooms.

In the room full of other boys, Sal changes quickly. He’s not comfortable changing with all these people. He’s also not comfortable looking at them, but he quickly scans the room. He hadn’t seen Larry when he walked in, but he should have been there before Sal.

The locker room door opens, and Larry runs past everyone in a hurry. He gets to his locker, next to Sal’s, and starts changing much faster than normal.

“Dude,” Sal sits on the bench with his shoes in his lap. “Where were you? Your class ended ten minutes ago.”

“I fell asleep during class!” Larry gets his gym clothes on in record time. “I woke up to the classroom empty and I was running late for gym.” He hasn’t been sleeping well recently. Worse than normal.

Sal laces his shoes and stands up. He pats Larry’s back. “How are you feeling?”

“Fine.” Larry sits on the bench and starts lacing his shoes.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Larry…”

Larry looks up at Sal with those damn puppy dog eyes. “Sal, I’m fine.”

Sal takes a deep breath and sighs. He wants to believe Larry, he truly does, but Larry has been so tired and sickly recently. He wishes Larry would stop trying to act so tough and accept some help. Sal looks around the locker room and finds it empty. “Larry…”

“Yeah?” Larry finishes tying his shoes and looks up at Sal.

Sal unbuckles the bottom strap of his prosthetic and lifts it. He leans down to Larry. “You know I love you, right?”

Larry blushes a bit. “Yeah. And I love you too.”

“You know you can talk to me, right?”

Larry nods. “Mhm.”

Sal gently sets a hand on Larry’s shoulder and leans closer. He knows Larry doesn’t want Sal to kiss him yet, as he could still give him the flu, so Sal skips his lips and kisses behind Larry’s ear.

Larry smiles and hums. He tilts his head when Sal pulls away and giggles.

Fuck, he’s adorable. Sal smiles and runs his thumb across Larry’s cheek. “Okay, time for gym.”

  
  
  
  
  


“Oof-!” Ashley gets knocked over by a dodgeball to the stomach. They’re not even playing with any sports balls…

Sal looks over to the other side of the gym and spots a group of girls giggling to themselves and looking over at Ashley. Culprits detected. Sal goes to Ashley and helps her up. “Are you okay?”

“I’m gonna kill someone…” She scans the gym just as Sal did, but Sal blocks her way before she can spot the girls. He doesn’t want her to start a fight right now.

“I have a question for you! And it’s important!” Sal says enthusiastically as he bounces on his feet.

Ashley smiles and nods. “Okay, go.”

Sal smirks a bit under his mask. “What is your favorite color?”

Ashley’s eyes widen a bit and she bursts out laughing. “ _That’s_ an important question!?”

“Oh, just answer it!”

“Okay,” Ashley giggles and crosses her arms. “Purple and black.”

“Ah, yes,” Sal giggles and walks past her. “The colors of your enemies after you deal with them.”

Ashley turns back to Sal and runs at him.

Sal sprints off to the other side of the gym, laughing, with Ashley chasing after him. He spots Larry sitting against the wall by the door and runs to him. “Larry, help me!”

Larry froze. Sal’s voice was filled with laughter and happiness, but those words… He can’t think about it too much, because Sal’s shoving him away from the wall and hiding behind him.

Sal uses Larry as a shield against Ashey, who’s trying to get around him. Sal hugs Larry and spins them around to always face Ashley.

“Okay, come on- Come on, guys!” Larry tries to break free from Sal’s grip. He suddenly feels off after hearing Sal call out to him.

The other two calm down and Sal lets Larry go. “Dude, are you okay-,”

“No!” Larry starts to shake. Fuck, not again.

The gym doors open, and the couch enters, but Larry sneaks back and runs to the door. 

“Larry, wait!”

Larry slips out the door and into the hallway. He stops by the lockers, already out of breath. He barely ran for ten seconds and he feels like dying. He clutches a stitch in his chest and heaves his breath.

“Larry!” Sal and Ashley run out of the gym and find Larry leaning against the lockers.

“Larry,” Ashley grabs Larry’s shoulder and feels him shaking like crazy. “What’s wrong with you-,”

“I don’t know!” Larry barks at her.

Ashley retreats her hand and stares at him in shock.

“Lar…” Sal says, sounding shocked.

“You three!” The gym teacher swings the door open and catches them. “Get back in here!”

As the teacher leaves, Ashley and Sal watch Larry for a few more seconds.

Larry bats his eyes, trying not to cry. He tries to take a breath, but it comes in unsteady. “I’ll be back in a minute…” He quietly curses himself for how much his voice quivered when he spoke.

But Sal and Ashley don’t move. They both watch Larry in fear, but they don’t know if they should grab him or not.

Larry runs his hands through his hair and turns to face the two. “I’m sorry…” He walks past them, back into the gym.

“Larry, wait!” Ashley runs after him with Sal behind her.

This isn’t normal for Larry…

  
  
  
  
  


Sal pants for breath and his sides start to hurt as he runs around the gym. They were doing 30 laps around the gym, and he’s on the 29th lap. He gets to 30 and finishes it, but collapses.

Everyone was collapsing. Rather they were finishing the 30th lap, or barely making 10, everyone was dropping to the floor. No one had properly stretched before running, as the teacher didn’t let them.

“Today we’ll be running thirty laps around the gym. Go!” That was all he said.

Sal saw poor Ashley hit the floor by the 15th lap. Normally she could dominate something like this, but the teacher didn’t let her warm-up beforehand. 

Sal wheezes and crawls to the benches. He pulls himself up with shaky arms and sits down. He feels weak and exhausted.

Ashley was back on her feet, having caught her breath and stopped shaking herself. She walks over to Sal and sits by him. “I fucking hate gym class.” She breathes out, still clutching her sore sides.

Sal stares down at his feet. When he gets his breath back enough to speak he feels a chill run down his spine. “Ash…”

“Yeah?”

Sal looks up to the other students in the gym. He spots Larry on the other side of the gym, sitting on the floor with his back pressed against the wall. “I never told you what happened on Friday, right?”

Ashley nods her head, but Sal’s not looking at her. 

He can’t look away from Larry. He’s so pale and thin. Larry was never really that big, but he’s never been very skinny either. Now, he’s way too skinny to be healthy. “When Larry left the cafeteria, and I found him in the bathroom…” Sal feels a tear run down his face. He hides his masked face in his hands. “Ash, please don’t tell him I told you this…”

“Oh, fuck.” Ashley scoots closer to Sal and hugs him. “Sal, please don’t tell me he slipped again.”

But Sal nods his head and feels Ashley tighten her arms around him. 

“Damn it…” Ashley’s voice shakes a bit.

“He was cutting when I found him,” Sal whispers. He looks up to see Larry, and the other boy hasn’t moved. “But there’s something else…”

“What?” Ashley leans down to see Sal’s eyes through his mask.

“He went to the hospital on Saturday… I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” Sal sniffs. “But we don’t even know what was wrong with him.”

“What? Why did he go to the hospital?” Ashley’s voice is laced with fear.

“He… He coughed up blood.” Sal turns to face Ashley. “The doctor said they couldn’t find anything wrong with him, other than he had the flu. Ash, I don’t know how to help him anymore.”

Ashley closes her eyes solemnly. “Sal, this doesn’t sound like something you can help. Larry gonna need professional help again.”

Sal leans into Ashley’s shoulder. “I know…” 

Ashley runs her hand through Sal’s blue hair. “Don’t think that you can’t be there for him. You know how much Larry cares about you, so just being moral support will help him.”

Sal wipes his eyes through the holes of his prosthetic. “Larry and I were supposed to have a date on Saturday.”

Ashley’s eyes widened a bit. “Really?”

Sal nods. “We were gonna go for a walk around the park… Larry doesn’t know, but they’ve put lights around the park for Christmas, so it looks really pretty…”

Ashley giggles a bit and rubs Sal’s arm. “That’s so sweet of you, Sal.”

Ashley and Sal are sitting on a bench, cuddled up to each other, in front of all these people. Larry’s blood boils as he watches them. Doesn’t Ashley have a girlfriend? Did _Sal_ promise he and Larry would have that date soon? The back of Larry’s ear, where Sal had kissed him, feels like it’s on fire. He just feels so angry watching them…

**_“Kill them.”_ **

“Shut up,” Larry responds to the voice in his head. He crosses his arms over his chest and scowls. He doesn’t want to hurt them, but God he’s pissed off seeing them like this.

**_“You know they used to love each other.”_ ** The voice creeps upon him. **_“You know they were in love. She’ll take him right back, and you’ll be alone again”_ **

Larry runs his hands down his face. He feels more annoyed than angry now. “Shut up already…”

**_“You’ll always be alone. You never take matters into your own hands, so everyone slips away from you.”_ **

Larry growls and forces himself to his feet. He marches across the gym with his fists clenched. “I fucking hate gym class.”


	6. Apex Predator

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Gore and Cannibalism

Sal searches the school hallways, desperately trying to find Larry. He disappeared after gym class, and no one can find him anywhere. Sal heads outside into the cold air, searching the sides of the building. He finally finds his friend hiding behind a dumpster at the very back of the building.

Larry presses his back against the wall and sulks. He has his hood pulled over his head, hiding Sal from his vision.

“What are you doing?” Sal says, causing Larry to jump. “You scared the crap out of me! Why did you disappear?” Sal steps in front of Larry and crosses his arms. He looks much more judgmental than he means to.

Larry scowls and slides his back down the wall, sitting on the cold ground. “Why do you care so much?”

Sal kneels to Larry’s height. “Because we’re friends? Did I do something to piss you off?”

Larry leans his head back and sighs. “No,” He stares up at the sky as he speaks. “You didn’t do anything…”

Sal scoots closer to Larry and sits on the ground. “Then what? You’re not okay, I can tell…”

Larry looks down at Sal’s prosthetic face. His blue eyes are filled with so much love and caring… Why was Larry mad at him again? A weak smile breaks out on his face. “I love you.”

Sal stares at Larry with wide eyes for a moment, then starts to laugh. “I love you too, but that doesn’t answer… You know what?” Sal stands up and holds a hand out for Larry. “You can tell me later. Let’s home.”

Larry smiles softly and takes Sal’s hand, and he’s pulled to his feet.

The end-day bell rings, and students pile out in front of the school. Some get into cars, some get on buses, and some start walking.

Sal links his arm with Larry’s and starts leading the way through the sea of students. As they pass by, the two hear strange murmurs.

“A girl screamed during the second period, right before I had gym.” One of the girls who hit Ashley with a ball was telling a group. “And no one has seen Jessie since.”

“Jessie Andrews? I saw her this morning, but then never again…”

Kids whisper and chat with each other, telling of the girl who went missing after the scream was heard.

“Oh, God, what if something bad happened to her?”

“Jessie couldn’t have run away, could she?”

Sal stops right by the road, stopping Larry too. He looks up at Larry. “I forgot to ask this. Did you hear a girl scream during the second period?”

“No,” Larry shakes his head. “I fell asleep, and no one bothered to wake me.”

“What?”

Sal and Larry both jump out of their skin and spin around to see Todd standing behind them.

Larry places his hand over his heart. “Jesus Christ, Todd, don’t do that!”

“Sorry. Anyway, what are you talking about?” Todd steps right beside Larry, watching him curiously.

“I fell asleep during math class.” Larry pats Todd’s back and gives a sarcastic grin. “Thanks for waking me up, by the way!”

Todd looks at Larry in confusion. “...I’m sorry, what?”

“What?” Larry repeats Todd’s words. 

“You left math and never came back…”

The three boys stand in confused silence for a moment.

“No, I fell asleep…”

“Larry, I remember you heaved like you were gonna throw up, then ran out of the room,” Todd says matter-of-factly. “I thought you were getting sick. I went to the nearest bathroom to find you, but you weren’t there.” 

“Wait, Todd,” Sal pipes in. “Did you hear a girl scream earlier?”

“Yes. Right before I went to find Larry.”

“I woke up in the classroom!” Larry tries to defend himself.

“Larry, you never came back…”

Suddenly, a large commotion inside the school building. People can be heard screaming and shouting, and it’s causing the students to grow curious.

“What the hell?” Sal breaks away from Larry and starts walking to the building.

“Wait, Sal, no!” Larry and Todd run after him.

Sal pushes through the sea of students, trying to get closer to the school. Larry and Todd do the same, trying to get to Sal.

Sal gets to the front steps, but the doors swing open, and a terrified looking Ashley and Maple come running down. They get to the bottom of the steps and run into Sal. “What’s wrong? What happened!?”

Both girls are shaking as they look at each other. “Someone…” Ashley tries to start, but she stutters out her word.

Larry and Todd finally get to them, both looking exhausted from pushing through all the people. “Guys-!” Larry starts to speak, but Maple cuts him off.

“There’s a dead body in the janitor’s closet…”

  
  
  
  
  


After several hours of students and faculty members being interrogated by police, Sal and his friends are finally allowed to leave. 

The sun is already starting to set as they leave the building to find their parents waiting for them.

Henry was talking with Todd’s parents, while Lisa anxiously listened. Lisa catches sight of the kids first and goes running to them.

Larry and Sal both are caught in a surprisingly bone-crushing hug from Lisa.

“Oh, my God, are you two okay!?” Tears run down Lisa’s face and she kisses both of the boy’s heads.

“Mom, we’re fine!” Larry hugs her back, but he’s starting to lose feeling in his arms.

Lisa lets go of Sal, allowing him to run to his father, but she continues almost crushing Larry.

Sal sees a shaken Todd being consoled by his parents as they lead him to the car, and Henry watches them walk off for a moment before turning to Sal. Sal’s not paying much attention to him until his hair gets ruffled. “Ah! Dad!”

Henry laughs and pats Sal’s head. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t help it.” Henry was going to say something else but decided against it. It’s fine because Sal knew what he was going to say. Diane used to do that every time Sal was upset.

Sal crosses his arms over his chest and stares down at his feet. “Can we go home?”

“Yeah! Yeah, of course.” Henry leads them to his car. 

Sal opens the passenger’s door and is hit with the smell of alcohol. Although Henry hasn’t drunk in months, his car still smells of it.

Henry buckles in looks over to Sal. “How are you doing, Buddy?”

Sal doesn’t say anything, just shakes his head.

“Okay, okay, I won’t pry into it.”

But Sal knows he’ll have to answer him later.

  
  
  
  
  


During math class, Larry presses his pencil harshly to the paper, causing it to snap. He’s trying not to think about his churning stomach, but his body decides to betray him and he dry-heaves loudly, drawing all attention in the classroom to him.

_ “Fuck.” _

Larry covers his mouth with his hands and runs out of the room as fast as possible. He tries to get to the nearest bathroom, but he crashes into someone.

“Hey!” A girl shouts at him. “Be careful!”

But Larry pays no mind to her and stumbles to get away.

“Asshole…”

Larry stops in his tracks. He looks back at the girl, suddenly feeling no longer sick. He watches the girl walk for a moment, then starts to follow her through the empty hallway.

_ “What?”  _ Larry thinks to himself.  _ “What’s happening?”  _ These movements aren’t his own. He’s not willingly following the girl.

**_“Do you remember her?” The voice whispers in Larry’s head._ **

_ “I don’t…” _

__ **_“She’s that girl who used to flirt with Sal.”_ **

Jessie? Larry does remember her. She used to flirt with Sal so aggressively that Sal would skip school just to avoid her.

**_“Isn’t she pretty? Sal always said her eyes were the prettiest thing about her…”_ **

Jessie stops and turns around. Her green eyes match Ashley’s to a T, but right now they’re filled with disgust. “Are you following me?”

**_“You can see why he likes her eyes so much.”_ **

Larry walks closer to the girl. He’s in control of his actions now… And he wants to hurt this girl.

Jessie rolls her eyes and turns back around. “Weirdo.” She continues walking.

Larry feels his blood rush and his adrenaline spikes. The predator has his prey right in front of him. Larry picks up his pace until he’s right behind Jessie. The girl doesn’t have time to realize he’s there before he wraps his arm around her neck.

“Hey! The fuck are you doing!?”

Larry looks around quickly and spots the janitor’s closet. He drags Jessie to it, but she lets out a scream. It pierced his ears and he throws his hand over the girl’s mouth. He drags them into the closet and shuts the door, but Jessie is still trying to scream.

He needs to shut her up.

Larry feels a sudden weight in his pocket. He reaches one hand into his pocket while Jessie struggles against him.

Jessie throws her fist back and punches Larry’s head.

A predator has to do whatever it can to keep its prey, so Larry bites down on Jessie’s neck.

Jessie screams into Larry’s hand and beats against him as his teeth sink into her flesh. She kicks and punches him, and bites into his hand. Prey will do whatever to escape the predator, but sometimes their strength is out-matched.

Larry’s mouth fills with the taste of Jessie’s blood as he feels the skin break under his teeth. He gets the object out of his pocket and pulls his mouth away from her neck. He holds in his hand a pair of scissors… Perfect.

Larry removes his hand from the girl’s mouth and forces her to turn around and face him. Jessie opens her mouth to scream, but Larry grabs her neck harshly and forces her to the floor, caging her under his legs. Jessie still tries to scream, keeping her mouth open, but no sound comes out as Larry squeezes her neck.

Her mouth is open, and Larry gives her neck just a slightly tougher squeeze, and her soft pink tongue lulls out. He needs to cut off the screams.

Larry brings the silver scissors to her tongue, just below her lips, but she brings it back in and closes her mouth tight.

He watches her for a second, those green eyes filled with tears and fear. He can’t help the little laugh that comes out of him. “You think that’s gonna do anything?”

Jessie kicks her leg up, nailing Larry in the groin, but he doesn’t flinch. 

Larry just laughs and removes his hand from her neck. “Such a pretty girl~.” Larry grabs Jessie’s face and forces her mouth open enough to stick his fingers in. She bites his fingers hard, but Larry doesn’t feel it. No blood is even drawn.

His fingers press against the wet tongue. He pulls his fingers out and grabs the sides of Jessie’s head with both hands. 

Jessie reaches up to grab Larry’s shirt and scratch at his face. But once her nails rack across his face she has no time to scream again.

Larry lifts her head high and slams her back down. Blood splatters out on the floor, and Jessie stops moving.

She is not dead. She’s still breathing and staring up at Larry in horror.

“Pl-please…” The prey sputters out pathetically.

Larry sticks his fingers back in Jessie’s mouth and grabs her tongue. He pulls the pink organ out as far as it will go and Jessie whines, begging for her life.

Jessie’s eyes suddenly widen in even more shock and horror as she stares at Larry’s eyes.

Larry tilts his head from side to side. “It’s such a shame, really. You are a beautiful girl.” He doesn’t break eye contact with Jessie until she closes her eyes in pain.

She can’t scream as her mouth fills with blood. All noise she makes is gargled out as Larry snips the scissors across her tongue.

Blood is spat into Larry’s face as the organ falls into his hand, severed from Jessie’s mouth.

Tears run down the girl’s face as she chokes on her blood. They’re coming from those pretty, green eyes.

Larry brings the scissors to his mouth and licks the blood from them. “Now,” He reaches down and opens Jessie’s right eyelids. “About these eyes…” He opens the scissors as far as they go, and stabs one blade in Jessie’s eye.

No hesitation, no remorse, and no regret. As Jessie chokes on her blood and more of the red liquid rolls down her face like tears, Larry feels only satisfaction.

Larry rips the scissors back, and the eyeball comes back with it. The nerves that connect her eyes to her brain rip out, with some still attached to the eye. Larry removes the left eye much faster, leaving the now blind and dying girl on the floor.

Larry pops the green eyes off the blades and into his hands. They’re not pretty anymore, just goopy and torn messes… But Larry wonders… 

He pops an eye into his mouth and bites down. It bursts in his mouth like a cherry tomato. It tastes fishy but with hints of ink. He pops the other one in his mouth, starting to like the taste. The blood drips down his chin he chews, then takes notice of the girl withering beneath him.

Jessie still tries to punch at Larry, kick him, anything. How pathetic. Prey does try to fight until the end, but Jessie should now know that her end was long ago.

Larry raises the scissors above his head and brings them down with a sickening  _ crunch _ into Jessie’s skull.

The girl goes still and her arms flop to the ground.

Larry swallows the remaining meat in his mouth, then leans down to Jessie’s face. “Sorry, beautiful, but I can’t have Sally seeing those pretty eyes. Or that face…” He pulls the scissors out with another crunch, satisfied with his work.

He licks blood and brain matter off the scissors. The brain matter is chewy and sticks to his teeth, but it tastes sweet.

The scene around him changes, and Larry’s suddenly standing over a sink in the boys’ bathroom. He runs water over the scissors, watching the water turn red as it runs down the sink.

Larry slowly looks up to the mirror. His eyes are completely white and there are blood droplets on his face. His mouth is twisted into a grin that seems too big for his face.

**_“Start taking matters into your own hands. An apex predator won’t lose any fight. You’ll never lose.”_ **

Larry starts to laugh. “Apex predator… Sounds fun.”

**_“You don’t have a soul. You’ll make the perfect apex predator.”_ **

“I have no soul…”

_ “Larry!”  _

Larry sits up quickly, smacking into someone. His face gets covered in blue hair as small, gentle arms wrap around him.

“It’s okay, it’s okay!” Sal shushes Larry and pats his back. “It’s okay, Lar…”

Larry has tears streaming down his face and can feel them soaked into his shirt. How long has he been crying?

Sal pulls back wipes tears from Larry’s red face. “Dude, you scared the fuck out of me…”

Larry shakes as he wipes more tears from his face. “What happened?”

“We were playing games,” Sal paints back to the T.V. with a paused video game. Larry realizes they’re in Sal’s bedroom. “You fell asleep, and I looked over and you were crying…” Sal’s voice cracks as he speaks.

Fuck, Larry made Sal cry. 

“Did you have a nightmare?” Sal asks and runs a hand through Larry’s hair.

Larry can’t talk. More tears start to run down his face and he curls in on himself.

“No, no, Larry!” Sal hugs him close. “Larry, it’s okay! You know you’ll be all right-,”

“No, I don’t!” Larry holds Sal close, fearing what will happen if he lets go. “I don’t know if I’ll be okay!”

“Larry,” Sal says softly and pulls back. He cups Larry’s face in both his hands. “ _ I know _ you’ll be okay. I know you’re freaked out over what happened at school, so am I, but you know you didn’t do anything. Whoever it was isn’t gonna hurt anyone else, I know this.” Sal strokes Larry’s hair and kisses his nose. “You gotta trust me that you’ll be fine, okay?”

Larry nods his head, but his eyes look like a kicked dog. His dream was way too realistic for his own comfort. He wants to tell Sal, but he feels sick thinking about it.

Sal lies down with Larry, cuddling him close. “I’ll stay here, I promise…”

Larry could easily fall asleep again. So close to Sal, in each other’s arms… He knows he won’t have another nightmare. Sal won’t have a nightmare either. They’ll keep each other safe, and chase off all those scary thoughts and images.

Right now, Larry’s face from that voice. He can’t hear it. Sal can always make Larry feel better, no matter how scary a dream was.

“Thank you,” Larry says out loud, not thinking.

“No problem,” Sal kisses Larry’s forehead, then receives a kiss on his cheek from him.

They’ll be okay. Bad dreams don’t last forever. You’ll always wake up.


	7. Simone Bensworth

“Are you sure? I don’t want to push anything-,” Larry gets cut off by Sal grabbing his shoulders.

Sal rolls his eyes and laughs at Larry. “Yes, I’m sure.” It was the seventh time that Larry asked in the last few minutes. He’s okay, but it’s clear that Larry’s nervous.

Which is true, Larry is nervous as hell. As the two sit on the bed, all he can think of is all the ways he’ll fuck this up and Sal will never want a relationship with him. It’s not like they’re fucking or anything, just kissing… But, of course, Larry’s never kissed anyone before.

“You know I’ll take care of you, right?” Sal, on the other hand, is a bit more experienced. “I know what I’m doing. You’re perfectly fine with not knowing, no need to be scared.” He talks sweetly and it makes Larry shiver.

“I-I’m not scared!” Larry scoffs like Sal’s just so silly for thinking that. But, he’s right. Larry’s terrified. Larry’s not a hopeless romantic, he  _ chooses _ not to date people… But now he regrets not being more experienced so he can make Sal happy.

“Now,” Sal whispers, “Wanna come here?” He gently pulls Larry by the shoulders and inches him closer.

Larry has no time to think about what to do when a pair of soft lips press against his own. Wait, no, don’t overthink it! That’s exactly what Sal told him,  _ “It’s kissing. Not much thinking is involved. Trust me, it’s way better for both of us if you don’t overthink it.” _ Okay, stop thinking. Larry clears his mind and kisses Sal back, enjoying the feeling of Sal’s lips moving against his.

It feels… kind of awkward. For Larry, at least. When Sal pulls away, Larry sees dreamy, half-lidded blue eyes fluttering like he’s on some high.

This is a great high and will be even better when Larry gets more used to it.

“That-that was-,” Larry stutters but Sal’s arms wrap around his neck and pull him back in.

Sal kisses a tad bit more roughly this time. He wants to ravage Larry, see what turns the awkward man into a far more intimate and animal-like beast… But he knows not to rush it.

Meanwhile, what the fuck does Larry do with his hands? They hover over Sal’s back like they’ll burn if he touches him. Does he place them on his hips? No,  _ stop overthinking. _ Larry sets one hand on Sal’s thigh and the other on his lower back. Much better. Just don’t think too much.

Sal tilts his head, deepening the kiss. Larry tilts his head to the other side. Is that what he’s supposed to do? Sal moves a hand up and cups Larry’s face, so he guesses that was the right thing to do.

This is good. Sal hasn’t stopped, so Larry’s not making him uncomfortable. Larry slips his hand up Sal’s thigh a bit more and gives it a slight squeeze.

“Mhmm~,” Sal hums into the kiss then pulls his face back. He keeps one wrist rested on Larry’s shoulder, and grabs the hand on his thigh. “You wanna… Go a bit further?”

Larry’s throat goes dry and his face turns pink. “Like… What?” _Like what?_ _You know what he’s talking about!_ Larry feels like an idiot… “I mean if you want to, sure!”

Sal giggles nervously. Now they’re straying where Sal’s inexperienced. “It just… Felt good when you grabbed me?”

“This?” And like the awkward dork that Larry is, he squeezes Sal’s thigh harshly, earning a surprised gasp and soft moan from the bluenette.

“Yeah!” Sal says louder than he meant to.

Larry’s face turns bright red as he stares in horror. He can’t believe he just did that to Sal. He watches Sal’s dreamy face as he shivers under Larry’s hands.

Sal tightens his grip on Larry’s hand a bit. “But maybe,” Sal moves Larry’s hand away and crawls slowly into his lap.

Larry shudders as Sal positions himself. A part of him is nervous as hell, the other part wants to hear how loud Sal can scream for him.

“Is this okay?” Sal asks as he sits down in Larry’s lap.

Larry nods his head so quickly, he smacks his forehead into Sal’s.

“Ow!” They both yell in sync and grab at their heads.

“Oh, my God…” Now Larry wants to throw Sal off of him and run and hide.

But Sal giggles happily. He brings his hands up to cup Larry’s face. “You’re silly!” He laughs and kisses Larry’s nose. “I love you so much!”

Larry watches those blue eyes for what feels like hours. How can someone be so perfect? Sal might not see it sometimes, but Larry finds everything about him perfect. Every inch of his body, every stray hair over his face, every scar, everything Sal deems as a ‘flaw’.

It makes Larry want to scream at the top of his lungs about every little detail. Every imperfection adds more character to the blue-haired man. He loves Sal so much it hurts!

Before he knew it, Larry was kissing Sal again. It’s only for a few seconds, both men have their breath taken away by it. Larry pulls away with a huge smile on his face. “I love you, too.”

Sal smiles and bites his lips. He takes Larry’s hand again and has him slide it up to his thigh.

Larry’s hand is guided past Sal’s thigh and up to his hip, then brought to his back pocket. Larry smirks Sal places his own hands on Larry’s shoulders. “Having fun?” He gently starts to squeeze Sal’s ass and gets another soft moan from him.

Sal rocks back a bit, grinding his ass against Larry’s hand. “Larry~,”

Larry wants to test the waters a bit more, and see how loud he can make Sal moan while still clothed. That sounds like Heaven…

Someone pounds on the door of the apartment, killing the mood in the bedroom instantly. “Sal!” Once the door is heard opening, Ashley’s voice calls out.

“Damnit.” Sal and Larry both say in sync.

“Come out here!” Ashley shouts excitedly.

Sal crawls off of Larry’s lap, causing Larry to lose the warmth of his body heat.

Larry felt annoyed by Ashley’s timing. “Can this wait?” He murmurs and follows Sal out of the bedroom.

They enter Sal’s living room and find Ashley in the doorway. “Oh, didn’t know Larry was here. Hi!” She waves to the metalhead.

But Larry ignores her. He sits on the arm of the couch and watches the other two, sulking angrily.

“What’s up, Ash?” Sal crosses his arms as he stands in front of Ashley. He doesn’t bother asking how she got the door open with no one else there, as that’s just something she does.

“Okay, so, Todd told me that you’re investigating the Bensworth family murders, right?”

Sal nods.

Ashley’s face stretches into a huge grin. “Well, I’m picking someone up from the church in an hour, and I think you’d be interested in meeting her.”

Sal’s breath gets caught in his throat and he fiddles with his fingers a bit. “Would this someone happen to be your girlfriend?”

Ashley chuckles. “You guys already found out, huh?”

“If by that you mean; found out your girlfriend is the granddaughter of a possibly possessed man… Yep! We figured that out a while ago!” Sal laughs.

Ashley giggles and hits Sal’s shoulder. “Anyway, she’s been doing some investigation, too! She’s all into the paranormal and thinks it had to do with what happened. When I told her about my friend,” She pokes Sal’s stomach, “Who is also into paranormal and wants to know what happened, she said she wants to meet you after church!”

“Ash, you’re amazing!” Sal jumps at Ashley and crushes her in a hug.

“You’re welcome!” Ashley laughs and hugs him back.

Larry watches them, his fingers twitching against the arm of the couch. Why, why is he so angry? This isn’t normal for him. “So, you’re taking Sal to the church?”

“Well, you’re here, too,” Ashley steps a bit closer to Larry. “You’ve been to the cabin, right? I told Simone about you, too. She’d like to meet you, but if you’re busy later-,”

“I’ll go.”

“All right then.”

  
  
  
  
  


Outside Phelps Ministry, the local church, Ashley leads the way to the entrance while Larry treks behind her.

Sal barely walks at all, hanging onto Larry as if his life depends on it. Both his feet are on top of Larry’s boots, while his arms are wrapped around Larry’s torso.

Ashley looks back at her friends and rolls her eyes. “I told you that coat wasn’t gonna be enough.”

“Hush!” Sal shivers against Larry. He was so excited to meet this girl that he didn’t want to waste time finding his winter coat… He’s greatly paying for it now…

The doors of the church open and people, bundled up in winter clothes, start leaving the Sunday Service.

Ashley goes up the steps, parting the crowd of people, with the boys behind her.

Larry picks Sal up bridal-style to get up the steps. “Hello,” He says as Sal’s prosthetic comes closer to his face.

“He-hell-,” Sal stutters out a greeting. “I’m in hell!” That got a few people to turn their heads. It must be quite the sight, seeing a man carrying another man (or woman?) who’s in a mask, saying they’re in hell.

When they get inside, Larry sets Sal’s feet on the floor.

“Holy crap it’s cold…” Sal continues hugging Larry as they follow Ashley through the church. She seems to know where she’s going, while the boys have never set foot in the church.

Ashley leads them down the almost empty aisle. At the end of it, they spot a girl with long, blonde hair sitting on a bench, talking to a familiar, scary face.

“Oh, yay, it’s Travis…” Larry whispers to Sal.

Sal giggles and hums. “Don’t start anything, please.”

Larry snorts. “I’ll behave if he behaves.” 

Ashley walks over to the bench and the blonde girl jumps up when she sees her.

“Hi, Ash!” She hugs Ashley.

“Hi, Simone!” Ashley hugs her girlfriend back. Simone steps to the side and Ashley keeps her arm wrapped around her. She smiles down at a surprised looking Travis. “Hey, Travis.”

Travis waves up at Ashley but doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t make a disgusted face like usual.

Over to the side, Sal buries the side of his prosthetic into Larry’s coat. “My face is so cold right now…”

Larry smiles down at Sal and laughs. “You wanna go somewhere private for a bit? You can take your mask off and warm up a bit.”

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Sal rubs his eye through the hole of his prosthetic. “Ow, my finger’s cold too.”

“You’re a mess.” Larry rubs Sal’s arm.

“Okay!” Ashley brings her girlfriend over to the boys, while Sal sees Travis walk off in the other direction. “Guys, this is Simone Bensworth,” She gestures to the blonde.

Simone is about the same height as Sal, maybe shorter. She’s wearing a very old-timey dress, looking like she should be living in a cottage in the 1920s. She waves eagerly at the boys and smiles. “Hello!”

Ashley gestures to the boys, “Big guy is Larry and the smaller guy is Sally Face.”

Simone reaches out both her hands to shake Sal’s and Larry’s at the same time. She got quite the grip for such a little thing, almost shaking Sal and Larry’s entire bodies. “It’s so nice to meet you two! Ashley told me a lot about you guys!”

Sal and Larry both laugh awkwardly. They can’t say the same, as Ashley hasn’t spoken much about Simone to anyone.

“Now, you,” Simone points to Sal. “You believe that theory that Hank Bensworth was possessed when he killed his family?”

Sal’s eyes widened a bit. Looks like they’re jumping right into it. “Uh, kinda? I know, some people find it offensive when people make these theories about their family-!”

“Are you kidding me?” Simone laughs. “I started the theory!”

  
  
  
  
  


The group all sat on a bench at the very back of the church aisle. 

Simone scrolls through her phone for a minute. “Right here,” She finds a photo and shows it to Sal.

It’s an old photo of Elisabeth Bensworth, the wife who was killed.

“That’s grandma.” Simone points to the woman’s chest. “See the necklace she’s wearing?”

Sal nods his head. “I see it.” It’s a simple pearl necklace with a silver brooch shaped like a flower. 

“That necklace belonged to Elisabeth’s mother, Mary Ellen Thompson. When Mary Ellen died when Elisabeth was nineteen, Elisabeth and her five sisters fought over who got the necklace.” 

Sal nods again, starting to see where Simone is heading. “So, there’s some bad blood involving that necklace?”

“Exactly.” Simone smiles. “After Elisabeth got it, there was never a single picture taken of her where she wasn’t wearing it. My great-grandpa said Elisabeth was a bit egotistical when it came to her looks, and took a lot of pride in  _ ‘winning’  _ the necklace.”

“Oooh,” Sal smiles under his prosthetic. “So, there’d be a lot of energy with that necklace?”

Larry chimes in from next to Sal. “What’s with the energy talk and what’s it got to do with the murders?”

“Yeah,” Ashley leans over Simone’s shoulder to see the picture. “You’ve talked about this before, but I’m still lost.”

“Well,” Simone switches the photo on her phone to a more modern one. It’s of a woman who looks almost identical to Simone, save for brown hair instead of blonde and blue eyes instead of brown. Simone points to the same necklace hanging from the woman’s neck. “My sister, Rachel, was given the necklace when she was eighteen. She wore it once, then never again.”

“Why?” Larry asks.

“When Elisabeth was killed by her husband, he ripped the necklace off of her. Why was that necessary?” Simone eyes Sal. “When one of Elisabeth’s sisters got the necklace and wore it for a month, she gave off to the next sister, saying it was cursed.”

“Cursed?” Sal’s eyes light up at the word. 

“Yep!” Simone smiles and nods. “In that month, her son passed away, her marriage fell apart, but her husband passed away before they could divorce. All five of the sisters wore the necklace for a month, and it was the worst months of their lives.”

“What happened to your sister?” Sal asks.

Simone lowers her voice. “Don’t say anything to anyone, Rachel will kill me, but on the night she got the necklace from our great-aunt, she found her boyfriend in bed with another woman.”

Sal nods along. “And you guys think the necklace caused her to be cursed?”

“Yep!”

Larry rolls his eyes, not believing the necklace is cursed. “So, what does this have to do with the murders?”

“Well,” Simone straightens up. “In a way, all the weird shit with the necklace backs up my theory that energies stick. If someone was always associated with negative feelings, thoughts, and actions, then it will start having negative effects on people who use it.” Simone turns to Ashley. “I told you before: we keep the necklace in a small chest with a rosary around it.”

“Yeah, your dad totally believes it’s cursed.” Ashley nods. 

“This is what brings me to the murders,” Simone turns back to Sal. “Elisabeth  _ never _ took that necklace off. So, when she was murdered, why wasn’t she found wearing it? Better yet, why was it found outside?”

“Easy,” Larry chimes in again, “Her husband wanted to hurt her.”

“Ah,” Simone raises a finger. “But why only her? Why not do anything to the two daughters who he also killed? They had things they loved.”

“Also!” Sal turns to Larry, “In all reports from before the murders, Hank Bensworth loved Elisabeth dearly. Was he just pretending?”

“No,” Larry leans back into the bench and crosses his arms. “He could have loved her, or at least thought he did. He could have rushed into his relationship with her, under the impression he was in love. But people tend to get confused with love, and what they think is love is actually desperation.”

Sal, Simone, and Ashley all stare at Larry in shock.

“Dude,” Ashley breaks the silence. “What are you even talking about?”

“I’m just saying,” Larry shrugs. “If Hank was desperate enough for love, he’d rush into the first relationship he got. If that happened to be an egotistical woman who cared more about her looks than her family, then he’d start getting frustrated sooner or later.”

Simone looks between Sal and Larry, unsure how to respond. “Then why did he kill their daughters then? And why not their son?”

“Well, Rocky was a baby, wasn’t he? And the girls were a bit older. By that point, Elisabeth would be grooming them into versions of herself.” Larry looks down at his boots and a smile creeps up his lips. “Most little girls at that time were waking up early on Sunday to watch the cartoons that were on, but Elisabeth had those girls styling their hair and doing their make-up so they’d look like little Barbie dolls. While most girls were actually playing with Barbies, those two were practicing walking in heels just to go to the store.” When Larry looks back up, the other three look concerned.

“Larry, what the fuck?” Ashley’s concern grows as she watches him. “This is so not like you. Why are you talking like this?”

Why the fuck is he talking like this? Larry’s demeanor as he spoke was strong, almost intimidating. But it shrinks down into awkwardness as Larry looks at everyone's faces. “I-I don’t know…” He doesn’t know where he was getting all of that. 

“You’ve been doing your research?” Sal questions.

“No, I haven’t…” 

“But, I didn’t tell you anything about the family? Did Todd?” 

“No… I-I-I really don’t know anything about the family.”

Ashley leans in with a questioning glare. “You said,  _ ‘Rocky.’” _

Larry raises an eyebrow. “What?”

“You know my dad’s name.” Simone pipes up. “You said you didn’t do any research, and they didn’t tell you anything about them.  _ But  _ you just went on a rant about Hank killing his family because of how obsessed they were with vanity,  _ and _ you know Rocky’s name…”

How did he know any of that? Larry racks his brain, trying to find where he got all that information. He said all of it as if it were facts…

“Hey,”

Larry jumps out of his skin and to his feet at a voice behind him. He spins around to see Travis standing behind the bench.

“Larry!” Sal jumps up and grabs Larry’s arm. “What’s wrong with you?”

“I… I-,” Larry can’t form any words.

Simone turns around on the bench, “Yes, Travis?”

The confused blond watches Larry and Sal for a second. He rolls his eyes and looks down at Simone. “They’re doing a baptism in a few minutes, so you guys have to leave.”

“Oh, okay,” Simone stands up and takes Ashley’s hand. “We’ll get out of your hair. See ya, Trav!” Simone waves at him. Travis actually smiles a bit and waves back.

Simone leads them outside, while Sal tries to soothe Larry as they walk.

“Larry, you’re shaking really bad.”

“I’m just cold!”

“You weren’t cold before…” Sal holds onto Larry’s arm. “Lar, you don’t tell me anything yet, but please stay at my place tonight. I’m sorry, but I don’t want to leave you alone right now.”

Larry stops walking suddenly and gives a painful hum. 

“Larry!?” Sal wraps his arms around him as Larry starts to double over.

Larry feels like he’s been stabbed in the gut, and he’s going to vomit. He drops to his knees and drags Sal down with him.

“Oh, fuck, oh, fuck!” Sal tries to hold him up but fails. “Larry, what’s wrong!?”

Footsteps come running over to them. “What’s wrong!?” Ashley drops down by Larry’s side.

Larry’s vision starts to go black, and his ears ring loudly. He covers his ears, trying to block it out, but he then hears an agonizing scream.

The scream comes from right below him. Larry’s vision comes back, and he sees a girl’s bloody face. 

Tongue cut out and gargling on her own blood. Eyeballs ripped out, and blood drips from the sockets like crimson tears.

**_“Monster.”_ ** A deep voice calls out in his head.  **_“That poor girl… Did nothing but try to get the boy she likes… Her poor mother, already dealing with cancer and divorce, now has to bury her dear daughter.”_ **

Tears slip down Larry’s face and fall on the body straddled under his legs.

**_“Surely, she won’t make it to that day though. With cancer treatment seemingly hopeless, her husband a cheater, and now, her daughter, who was working to pay the bills while she paid for treatment, has been killed like a sick dog for having a crush on a boy.”_ **

Larry grips at his hair and pulls on it. He sobs and chokes on tears as he squeezes his eyes shut.

**_“Surely, her poor mother will kill herself before that day comes.”_ **

_ “You’re okay, Larry.” _ It’s like waking up from a nightmare as Sal’s voice pulls Larry back into reality.

Sal shivers from the cold air as he hugs Larry tightly. “Everythings okay, Lary…” He whispers to him. He wants to kiss him, let him know that he’s here, but the damn prosthetic is in the way.

Larry covers his mouth and sobs. His body shakes in Sal’s arms and he can’t breathe right.

Ashley gets to her feet and pulls out her phone, “I’m sorry, but I’m calling Lisa.”

Larry mumbles something between sobs that Sal can’t hear.

Sal leans Larry’s head into his chest and strokes his hair. “You don’t have to talk, Lar. It’s okay.”

Larry mumbles again, and once again Sal doesn’t catch it.

“Larry, I don’t understand-,”

Larry looks up at Sal with his tearful eyes. His voice shakes and cracks as he tries to form his sentence again. “I killed Jessie…”


	8. What Have You Done?

Lisa walks over to the living room couch, where Ashley and Simone had sat down. “So, what happened?” She asks, concerned.

“He just… broke down.” Ashley starts. “He doubled over like he was in pain, then… You know the girl who was found in the janitor’s closet at school last week?”

“Yes?”

“Larry said  _ he  _ killed her.” 

Everyone in Knockfell knew that the police found no evidence of a killer. Even though people suspected Larry, due to him being the only other person reported leaving a classroom at the same time Jessie Andrews did, no DNA, weapon, any sort of forensic evidence has been found leading to Larry.

“Then,” Simone speaks up, “He started saying things that… didn’t make sense.”

Lisa looks at the smaller girl, confused. “How so?”

“He said Jessie’s mom had cancer? And her dad was a cheater?” Simone shakes her head a bit. “I  _ know  _ Alice and Phil Andrews, her parents. Yeah, they’re divorced, but not ‘cause Phil was a cheater. And Alice has never had cancer.”

Ashley shakes her head and sighs. “It sounds like he wants to make himself feel worse for,” Ashley does air-quotes with her fingers,  _ “‘Killing her.’” _

Meanwhile, in Larry’s bedroom, he hides his face in a pillow and shudders. He stopped crying long ago, unable to get any more tears out. So he only whimpers into the pillow as warm hands run up his back.

Sal’s hands sneak under Larry’s shirt and press against his skin. He had thrown his prosthetic to the side, now able to press gentle kisses to the back of Larry’s neck. He kissed Larry’s head, shoulders, and down his back. Every kiss got another shiver from Larry, and his whimpers began to silence.

Larry adjusts his head, no longer having his face hidden in the pillow. He takes a deep breath and feels a gentle kiss pressed to his cheek.

“I love you, you know?” Sal whispers into Larry’s ear then kisses his cheek again.

Larry whimpers again, but no tears fall. He’s got none left.

“Turn over,” Sal leans back and pulls on Larry’s arm.

Larry rolls over onto his back, now facing Sal.

Sal straddles Larry’s hips and looks down at him, cupping his face. “You know how much I love you?” Sal answered the question by leaning down and kissing Larry’s dried-out lips sweetly. Sal leans back and watches Larry’s eyes carefully. “I don’t know what you think, but I think you’re beautiful, Lar.” Sal smiles and pokes Larry’s nose.

Larry giggles a bit, falling more in love with Sal by the minute. But he just can’t understand why Sal would feel this way.

Larry knows that all the things Sal deserves are all the things Larry’s not.

He knows he’ll drag Sal down soon enough. Dealing with Larry’s breakdowns and issues will start to take their toll, and Sal’s mental health will be drained soon. 

What Sal just called  _ “beautiful” _ has dry, cracked skin from dehydration from crying. How can Sal kiss him when his lips feel like chalk against his? 

No matter how much Larry tries, he can’t get better. He can’t care for Sal the same way Sal cares for him. He’s not strong enough. But that will drain Sal soon, and Larry will be alone again. He doesn’t want to be alone, but he can’t hurt Sal like that. He needs to be as comforting and nurturing as Sal, but he just can’t do it.

He’s not anything that Sal needs or deserves. It’s a codependent relationship that Sal won’t be strong enough for. They’ll both only be hurt in the long run…

But as a million thoughts run through Larry’s mind, another sweet, comforting kiss is placed on his lips by a pair of much softer lips. At this moment, nothing is wrong.

No one is sad, no one is hurt, and no one else exists. As Larry’s hands make their way up Sal’s hips and rub up his waist, they’re both fine.

Sal tangles his fingers in Larry’s hair as he kisses him, and it’s the greatest feeling. He takes his own breath away from the sweet feeling of the kiss he gave Larry. He pulls back and looks down at those honey-brown eyes.

Larry sees pure love and lust in Sal’s eyes. He feels something poke against his lower abdomen and his heart flutters and stops. 

Sal blushes and bites his lip. He didn’t think that would turn him on so much. But when Larry’s fingers brush down Sal’s waist and start to fiddle with his belt, he can’t help any noise or action he does.

Larry fiddling with Sal’s belt earned him getting a bulge grinding down on him. “Oh-!” Larry gets startled a bit but breathes out a pleasurable sigh. Okay, that was the right thing to do. After some more struggling, Larry removes Sal’s belt completely.

The belt gets tossed to the floor and Sal straightens up, sitting on Larry’s bulge. He tugs at the end of Larry’s shirt, “Can you take this off?”

Larry doesn’t say anything, but quickly sits up and tugs off his shirt as fast as possible.

Sal giggles at his eagerness. When Larry tosses his shirt to the floor, Sal presses his hands to his bare chest and pushes him back to the bed. Sal pulls his own shirt over his head and tosses it with everything else.

Larry watches in awe as Sal undresses. He’s so pale, he looks like a ghost. But Larry finds it beautiful. Sal has a spooky aura about him, and his lustful, erotic energy mixed in made Larry feel so weak. He felt Sal could easily overpower him. He’s scary, gorgeous, and makes Larry’s body tingle.

Sal leans back down, giving Larry another kiss. “Larry~,” He whispers and cups Larry’s face. “Can I pull these down a bit?” He asks innocently as he hooks his finger under the waistband of Larry’s pants.

Larry blushes and nods quickly. “Yes!” He said a bit louder than he meant.

But there’s a knock on the door. “Boys!” Lisa calls from the other side. “Come out here please.”

And just like that, they’re pulled back into reality. 

Larry had a breakdown in the streets, where he admitted he killed a girl. His mom was called, and they had to drag him home in tears.

Sal sighs sadly. He couldn’t be more disappointed. He gives Larry a quick kiss and whispers into his ear, “We’ll try again later.”

  
  
  
  
  


Later can’t come soon enough for Larry. Everyone who isn’t Sal wants to talk with him, but all he wants to do is curl up in bed with Sal in his arms. Even if they don’t have sex tonight, Larry still wants to spend the night with him.

He just can’t get enough of Sal.

After Simone and Ashley had to leave, and Lisa was called by Mr. Addison, the apartment was almost empty. Larry and Sal were left alone again. Larry sat close to Sal on the couch, but he didn’t touch him. Larry feels… Off.

Sal can’t fight the feeling that Larry’s not right. “Are you okay?”

God, Larry is so tired of hearing that phrase. “I’m fine.” His hands are laid on his knees, and he watches his fingers twitch.

Sal reaches out and sets his cold hand on top of one of Larry’s. The twitching stops, but it feels tense under Sal’s palm. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, Sal!” Larry snaps.

Sal retreats his hand, startled by Larry’s sudden aggression. “Sorry…”

Why did he snap? “No, I’m sorry!” Larry twists in his seat and his knees knock into Sal’s. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Larry grabs Sal’s hand in both of his. “I didn’t mean to yell, I-,”

“Larry, stop.” Sal’s voice is tired and strained. “Just… Please stop.”

He’s doing it. Larry’s pushing Sal to his limits, and draining him of all his mental energy. He knew he’d fuck this up. Larry lets go of Sal’s hand and turns away from him. “I’m sorry…”

“Lar,” Sal starts, looking straight ahead. With his prosthetic on, Larry can’t read his face. “I won’t ask again, but please stop lying to me.”

Larry looks over at Sal, looking like a kicked puppy. “What?”

Sal takes a deep breath and looks at Larry. “You’re not fine. You don’t feel right, but we can help that. But please, Larry,” Sal slouches over and leans closer to Larry, “I really need you to stop telling me you’re fine when you know you’re not, then turning around and yelling at people. Please?”

Is Larry smiling? Yes, but it’s possibly the saddest smile Sal has ever seen. His lip twitches like he’s going to cry. Larry can’t help it. Sal is so great, and he’s dedicated to Larry getting better. Larry nods his head in response to Sal. “I’ll do better, I promise.”

Sal snorts, and Larry sees the corners of his eyes crinkle up from a smile. “I’ll help you do better, just please tell me when you aren’t feeling right.” Sal grabs Larry’s hand, and there’s no tension this time.

Larry watches Sal for a moment, taking in how cute his boyfriend is. How sweet, how charming, and caring he is. It makes Larry want to cry at how much he loves him. “I love you, Sally.” Is all he can manage to get out, but it’s still not enough.

Sal giggles under his mask. “I love you, too, Larbear.” He uses the nickname that Larry hates now, but it hits differently coming from Sal.

Sal stops for a moment then pulls out his phone to check the time. “It’s noon… I need to feed Gizmo.” Sal pockets his phone and looks back up at Larry. “Wanna come upstairs?”

Larry nods and smiles. He never wants to leave Sal’s side.

  
  
  
  
  


Upstairs, Sal pours cat food into a bowl, and his large, orange cat waits patiently for it to be set on the floor.

Larry watches from the living room couch as Sal gives Gizmo his food. The simplest things make him love Sal more, even just feeding his pet.

As Gizmo chomps down on his food, Sal returns to the living room and sits next to Larry on the couch. “Movie or video games?”

“I was thinking…” Larry sneaks an arm around Sal’s shoulders and pulls him close. He then slips his hand, gently up Sal’s thigh.

Sal giggles and reaches back to unclasp his prosthetic. It falls off, and Sal sets in on the coffee table. “My dad should be home soon, so he can’t do much.” Sal cups Larry’s face in his hands. “Or we can just go to my room and be very quiet.”

“I’d rather do that.” Larry kisses Sal sweetly and squeezes his thigh. “People have been blue-balling us all day, I’m dying to get to touch you~,”

But the front door swings open and the boys jump away from each other.

Sal looks up to see his dad stumble into the apartment and his heart sinks. “Hi, Dad…”

Henry doesn’t say anything and goes into the kitchen. He starts rummaging through the cabinets.

Sal stands and walks over to the kitchen. “How was your day?” 

Henry pauses for a moment and looks back at Sal. “Fine.” His eyes are dark and his face is washed out. As Sal gets closer, he can smell the scent of whiskey.

“Dad,” Sal’s voice goes deep with worry. “Where did you go?”

“I told you this morning, I had work.” Henry finds what he was looking for in the cabinets. A bottle of pain pills.

“Work on a Sunday morning?”

“Yes!” Henry snaps at his son.

Larry watches them from the couch. When Henry shouted at Sal, Larry’s breath got caught in his throat, and his fist clenched.

“Dad,” Sal walks around the counter. “You went to the bar, did you?”

“No, I fucking didn’t.” Henry grabs a glass from another cabinet and fills it with water.

Sal knows better. Henry doesn’t cuss at anyone when he’s sober. “No, Dad…” Sal runs his hands down his face. “You were doing good. You were sober for a whole month.”

“Sal, I’m not fucking drunk!” Henry shouted again.

**_“Kill him.”_ ** The voice in Larry’s head called to him. He wants to…

Sal cautiously steps closer to his father. “Dad, it’s okay. It’s not so bad that you had a relapse, it happens. But please don’t lie to me-,” Those were the same words he had said to Larry less than ten minutes earlier. But instead of being followed by an understanding of Sal’s fear, it’s cut off by a loud  **_smack!_ **

Larry jumps up in horror as Sal hits the counter.

Sal looks up in shock as the left side of his face welts up in bright red, hand-shaped print. 

“I told you, I’m not fucking drunk!” Henry stumbles back and knocks the glass of water off the counter, sending it shattering to the floor.

Larry runs to the mess and picks up a large, sharp piece of glass.

**_“Do it.”_ **

Sal looks over to his dad, shaking. “Okay, okay, we’ll leave you alone-,”

Henry has his back turned to Sal. He looks over the counter and down at Larry. “The fuck are you doing-?”

Larry jumps up so quickly that Sal can’t even tell what happened when Henry fell back to the floor.

Henry didn’t make a sound as he hit the floor, grabbing right at his shoulder. Blood spurts out of his shoulder like a fountain of gore as he stares down, paralyzed from shock and fear.

Blood sprays against the glass shard stuck in Henry’s shoulder, and he finally lets out a horrified, agonizing scream.

But Sal is still paralyzed. He watches, frozen, as more blood sprays to the floor. His trance is broken when he sees Larry crawl over the counter like an animal and lands on the bleeding man.

Henry keeps his left hand on his shoulder and reaches his shaking right hand to grab Larry’s shirt. It’s a desperate attempt to keep him back. “You-you- you fucking stabbed me!”

Larry breaks out in a huge grin that could split his face. “You… Hit… Sally…”

Fear finally hits Sal and scatters backward and trips, landing on his bottom. 

Larry jerks his head so violently that his neck should have snapped. He catches sight of Sal, and Sal sees his eyes.

Those warm, brown eyes are gone. In their place are a pair of completely white, hollow eyes that send a sick feeling to Sal.

“L-Larry…” Sal stutters.

Larry abandons Henry, who has fallen unconscious. He crawls on all fours over to Sal, grinning at the terrified expression on Sal’s face. His head twitches a few times, but in the blink of an eye, it’s straightened out. “Sally~,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prepare yourselves. Shits about to hit the fan.


	9. I Love You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry that I didn't get this out sooner. The time I spent writing this was hell...

Neighbors poked their heads out their doors as police filled Addison Apartments.

A concerned neighbor called them, reporting screams and thuds from the apartment. While the neighbor reported that the father in the apartment, Henry, had a possible history of being abusive to his son, Sal.

When police arrived, nothing could have prepared them for what they found.

The apartment was covered in impossible amounts of blood. It covered the floor, the walls, and the ceiling. The blood leads a trail from the kitchen to a bedroom.

The police find the father, Henry, unconscious on the kitchen floor. He’s alive, but he’s bleeding profusely from a glass shard in his right shoulder.

As an ambulance is called to the location, the rest of the apartment is searched. No one is found in the bedroom where the blood leads, nor anywhere else in the apartment. But the bedroom is torn apart, with the bed flipped over and clothes scattered across the floor.

It’s far too much blood to be Henry’s. There has to be someone else hurt.

  
  
  
  
  


The tension in the building is stiff as people peak out their windows every so often.

It’s been an hour since Henry was taken to the hospital, and once he woke up he was visited by a police officer.

Now, in the basement of Addison Apartments, Lisa is curled up in her bed, weeping into a pillow.

It is now known that Larry attacked Henry, and possibly kidnapped Sal.

Neither of the two has been found anywhere in the town, and the police are searching for them.

Lisa tries not to think of the worst. That her son tried to kill someone and now possibly killed Sal. She knows Larry wouldn’t do it, but then what happened to the boys?

  
  
  
  
  


It’s almost midnight when a young couple was having a rendezvous by Wendigo lake. All was well, but then the police were called.

Two seemingly dead bodies were found near the woods.

Police and an ambulance are sent to the spot of a horrific scene.

Paramedics discover that the two men are both still alive. They’re both covered in blood, and one is twisted and bent in horrific ways.

A short man with blue hair and a disfigured face was curled up on himself. He’s awake, but he’s not responding to anything they say to him.

He’s in a state of shock. His breathing is so rapid that he almost hyperventilates. Every time someone tries to touch him, he starts to panic and shakes, and tries to get away from them.

An EMT finally manages to inject him with a morphine shot to calm him enough to get him on a stretcher.

The other man, a brunet who was the one twisted around, is put on a stretcher and has an oxygen mask placed on his face.

Despite how horribly bent out of shape he was, paramedics can’t find any signs of broken bones. But they do find the source of the blood.

The blue-haired man was examined, and no wounds were found. The brunet was the problem.

Two deep, long gashes run down his shoulders. A gash runs down the center of his chest. His arms, legs, stomach, and back are cut up with various, strange shapes carved into his skin.

This was a sadistic attack. But the only witness they could have is still in a horrible state of shock and paralyzing fear.

  
  
  
  
  


“One… Two… Three…”

Larry wakes up, but his eyes remain close. A soft voice speaks just near his head.

“One… Two… Three…”

“Hmm…” Larry tries to adjust his head but it sends shooting pain down his back. His movements cause a little hand that was placed on his chest to move away. Larry forces his eyes open and sees Sal staring down at him. The light of the room is too bright and Larry closes his eyes again. But he saw Sal nonetheless. No prosthetic, no glass eye, and his hair down. At that moment he saw him, his heart felt light. Despite all the pain Larry feels in his body, his heart flutters when he sees Sal.

Larry tries to move his hand and feels no pain there. He reaches over blindly to where Sal is. “What are you counting?” He says weakly.

“Um…” Sal slides his fingers between Larry’s. His skin feels tight and tense under Sal’s, but that’s just because he’s been out for a while. “I was counting your breaths…”

Larry opens his eyes again, adjusting to the light. He sees Sal’s beautiful face and smiles at him. “Hi,”

Sal smiles at Larry, but tears start to fall down his face. “Hello,” He says sadly.

Larry tries to look around the room and realizes where he is. Completely white walls and floor, and machinery by the bed that’s hooked to Larry. He’s in a hospital. “Sal?” Larry adjusts his head again, finding a less painful position to look at Sal. “What happened?”

Sal’s lip quivers and his hand trembles in Larry’s. “Larry, I-,”

Before Sal says anything, everything comes flooding back to Larry in seconds. 

He stabbed Henry, then dragged Sal to the bedroom… That look on Sal’s face. He was terrified.

“Larry…” Sal whispers and reaches his hands out. He wipes tears from Larry’s face that Larry didn’t know were there. “Larry-,”

“Where did we go?” Larry grabs Sal’s wrists as Sal cups his face. His shoulders burn from the movement, but he ignores it. “I took you away after I hurt Henry-,” His heart sinks. “Oh, fuck, is Henry okay!?”

“He’s fine!” Sal cries out. He’s done so much crying in the last 24 hours that he hasn’t slept at all. “He lost a lot of blood and needed stitches, but he’s gonna be okay.”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Larry covers his eyes with his hands. “Oh, my fucking God…” His voice trembles badly and Sal tries to move his hands away.

“Larry, you need to calm down,” Sal says, despite his own voice trembling. “You’re hurt too. You’ve got a lot of stitches.”

Larry tries to look down and sees his shoulders and chest are bandaged. That’s where the pain is the worst. The hospital gown that lays over his chest is causing more pain there, so Larry pulls it down. His arms are wrapped up, and he feels his legs must be too. There’s a blanket over his lower half, but he feels the bandages on his skin. 

More and more questions start coming to Larry. “Wait, is Henry still in the hospital?”

Sal nods his head.

“Why aren’t you with him?” Larry regrets asking almost instantly.

Sal hides his face in the blanket before the tears can fall. “He didn’t want to see me…”

Larry’s heart feels heavy now. He reaches out to Sal as much as he can and pets his hair. “Sal-,”

“He blames me, too.” Sal sits up and looks down at Larry. “He thinks we planned to kill him and run away… I don’t know why he thinks that…” Sal shakes his head and cries into the blanket. He tried to see his father earlier but was sent away after being told his father suspects him.

Larry grabs the hand of his heartbroken lover. He has more questions, but they can wait. He wants to comfort Sal, but at the same time, he can barely move. “Sal…”

Sal looks up, his eye is red and puffy.

“What happened to me?” Larry looks down at the bandaging on his chest. He was told once before by the voice to cut himself, but he can’t see how he’d be able to do any of this.

Sal doesn’t answer. He grows quiet and stares at Larry with a scared and worried expression. “...Lar, I can’t-,”

“Can’t what?” Sal’s hesitance terrifies Larry. “You can’t tell me?”

Sal hesitates a moment more, then leans closer to Larry’s face. “Larry, I haven’t been able to tell anyone what happened, and I…” Sal cuts himself off and swallows hard. “I’ve been thinking it over and over and over again, and I so badly want to be wrong about my conclusion…”

“What?” Larry breathes heavily as panic starts to settle in. “What are you talking about? What does this have to do with my cuts?”

Sal starts to stroke Larry’s hair to calm him, but he is freaked out. Sal thinks he knows what’s been wrong with Larry… He wants to be wrong, but there’s no way he can be… “Larry, I need to ask you a question.” Sal grabs Larry’s hand and holds it tight. “I really need you to think about it.”

Larry watches Sal with worry for a second. “Okay…”

Sal takes a deep breath, mentally preparing himself. “What happened when you went to get your lighter at the cabin? Please, think really hard and try to remember…”

Larry tries, but his head starts to hurt. He covers his eyes with his free hand as he tries to remember. 

He and Sal were mad at each other. He heard whistling and a creepy laugh, and thought Sal was messing with him. But Sal got mad at him for the accusations. Larry scared Sal, Sal got mad at him, then they went outside. Larry forgot his lighter and went back to get it, while an angry Sal stayed outside.

“Fuck, Dude.” Larry groans. “I don’t remember what happened.” He uncovers his eyes and looks over to Sal. “I went to get my lighter, then, like… Blacked out?” But Larry’s heart sinks when he notices Sal’s bottom lip quiver.

“Larry…” He can’t say it. If he says it, acknowledges it, then it’s real. A part of Sal feels like if the words leave his mouth, there’s no going back.

Sal pauses for too long, and Larry starts to worry again. He painfully reaches to Sal and tucks a piece of blue hair back. “Hey,” He speaks quietly. 

Sal has to fight back tears when his vision goes blurry. He can make out Larry’s outline as a rough hand strokes his cheek.

“You know I love you, right?”

The fight with his tears instantly becomes a losing battle. Sal leans down and rests his forehead on the pillow, crying as he squeezes Larry’s hand. He looks up to barely see a startled Larry in his blurry vision. “I love you too!” He stokes Larry’s hair as Larry tries to wipe all the tears from Sal’s face.

Neither of them speaks for a while. They comfort each other, and everything feels like it could be normal.

But Sal has to tell him. Rip off the bandage, but the wound will only get infected from it. Sal squeezes his eyes shut and rubs his nose. “Larry, there was something in the cabin that day…” It takes a bit of courage to open his eyes and look at Larry. When he does, he’s greeted by those pretty, brown eyes. “Something was there and it left with you.”

Larry looks at Sal, confused. “What are you talking about?”

Sal swallows hard and licks his lips. He knows he isn’t wrong, but it will kill him to say it… But Larry doesn’t deserve to be kept in the dark.

“Sally?” Larry tucks Sal’s hair behind his ear.

“Larry…” Sal breathes heavily. “I think you’re possessed…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK, so,  
> I rewrote this about 3 times. I didn't make any huge changes any time, just fixing it up a bit.  
> I already planned for it to be short, just to be the big reveal that Larry's possessed. The next chapter will cover more, yada yada yada, you get my gist.
> 
> Then, I was doing some spellcheck... and my internet went out, and my page crashed.  
> Over half of the chapter was deleted in that crash.
> 
> I almost cried.
> 
> So, I had to rewrite over half of this chapter. I had a really hard time doing that. It was a struggle.
> 
> Anyway, I'm all right now, and the next chapter will cover more of the questions we've got.
> 
> See ya \m/


	10. The Woods and The Hospital

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLEASE READ THIS FIRST:  
> This chapter is written kinda weirdly, so let me explain.
> 
> This is jumping back and forth between the 2 days when Sal and Larry went missing in the woods, and when they're at the hospital.
> 
> Larry is lacking memories, so whenever he remembers something that happened in the woods, it gets shown in the chapter. But just know, he's actually in the hospital the entire time. The end of the chapter is the last thing he remembers from that day.
> 
> Hope that explains well enough!

Sunday, January 23rd, 2:28 p.m.

Pale, bloodstained hands grip onto a tree for support, and Sal painfully pulls himself to his feet. His legs are weak, and his lungs burn. He’s already collapsed, he can’t do it again. He’ll be found…

**“Sally~,”** Several voices, all speaking over each other, whisper into Sal’s ear.

He’s already been found.

Sal pushes himself back and slams into a wet body. The wetness covers his back and he tries to run again but stumbles on his aching legs, tumbling to the ground. Sal’s jaw hits the dirt and his face gets covered in it. “Ow!” He cries out and tries to crawl away, but rough hands grab the back of his shirt and force him up to his feet.

Sal’s back is pressed against the wet body, and he squeezes his eyes shut. He struggles against his captor, hearing his shirt get ripped in the process. 

“ **Sally** ,” The voices speak, one feminine, one masculine, and one childish. “ **Don’t fight me…** ”

“Larry…” It’s like fire on Sal’s tongue to say his boyfriend’s name. He knows Larry’s there, but this isn’t Larry. “You’re hurting me…” 

Sal is let go, but a pair of arms quickly wrapped around his torso, hugging him close.

Sal opens his eyes and looks down at the blood-covered arms, but he shuts them again when another hand starts to pat his hair.

“ **I’m sorry, Baby~,** ” The feminine voice is the loudest now.

Another hand comes up and strokes under Sal’s chin, and Sal starts to cry. As he was running through the woods, trying to get away from  _ “Larry”, _ he only caught a glimpse of his outline. A grotesque, horrific, mangled mess of limbs and flesh. It’s topped with horrible amounts of blood.

Sal couldn’t open his eyes again. He couldn’t bring himself to see what this thing- this demon- did to Larry’s body. But he was given an idea as six different arms cradle him close. 

Sal’s legs still shake from the hours he spent running. “Larry-,”

“ **You must be tired, aren’t you?** ” The voices mesh together, and Sal strains his ears to hear Larry’s voice. But he can’t hear him.  **“I’ll take care of you. Don’t you worry, Baby Blue~.”**

  
  
  
  
  


Monday, January 24th, 5:00 p.m.

A tray of food in place on the table at Larry’s hospital bed.

The nurse who brought the food leaves, leaving Larry and Sal alone again.

Sal holds Larry’s hand, resting them on the bed. He hasn’t said a word for a while, and it’s starting to worry Larry.

But right now, Larry needs to worry about getting this food down. The doctors said he could only have light foods, which means rice and vegetables. But the smell is making him want to gag as he stares at the tray in disgust. Everything is making him feel sick.

Sal reaches for the tray and inches it closer to him. He takes the fork and stabs it into a carrot. He starts to bring it to Larry, but Larry grabs his wrist.

“I’m not about to let you feed me, Sally Face.” He smiles and takes the fork from Sal. He tries to eat, but he can’t get the fork to his mouth without shooting pain in his arms and shoulders. “Nevermind, this hurts…”

Sal huffs a bit and smiles. “Exactly what I thought would happen.” He takes the fork back and holds it to Larry’s mouth.

Larry feels kind of silly letting Sal feed him, but it’s the only way to get food in him. The nurses and doctors said he can’t have any more painkillers as he’s already on several drugs that are making him a bit loopy.

Sal gets Larry to eat half the tray, but then Larry starts to look sick. Sal sets the fork on the tray and grabs Larry’s hand again. “You’ll start feeling better-,”

“Sal?” Larry leans back into the bed, relaxing his shoulders. “Um, I think I remember something…”

Sal’s eye widens a bit and he leans closer to Larry. “What is it?”

Larry’s eyelids droop and he turns his head to Sal. Not very much, but enough to see his face better. “Not from the cabin, but…” Larry closes his eyes, trying to surpass a headache that’s coming from remembering being in the woods. “I was chasing you through the woods… And then I caught you…”

“Larry, stop.” Sal’s voice is stern. It takes Larry by surprise.

“What?” Larry asks, shocked.

Sal stops for a moment, then he takes a deep, shaky breath. He stands up and leans over Larry, and kisses his forehead. He looks down at Larry, presses their noses together. “Whatever you remember, just know it wasn’t you out there…”

Larry’s possessed. When Sal first said those words it made Larry’s stomach turn. But now, it’s about to shatter his heart. What did he do to Sal in the woods? “Sal, I-,”

“Larry,” Sal runs his hand through Larry’s hair. “It wasn’t you out there. Nothing is your fault. Whatever you remember, it wasn’t your fault…”

Sal won’t tell Larry what happened precisely. He said he knew Larry was possessed because of how his voice changed, with three different voices speaking from his mouth. His body changed too, but tears spill down Sal’s face every time he tries to talk about it.

Larry won’t push him to tell. But knows the changes were what ripped him apart.

  
  
  
  
  


Sunday, January 23rd, 2:30 p.m.

Sal is thrown to the ground. He kicks up grass and dirt in an attempt to catch himself. He lands face-first into mud and wiggles to get away. But six hands grab him. 

Sharp, needle-like claws dig into Sal’s body from six angles. The smaller man cried out in pain as he is flipped over, laying on his back in the mud.

The figure that straddles Sal’s hips sends chills up and down his body. 

White, hollow eyes with black liquid oozing down like tears. His teeth are sharp and jagged. He almost doesn’t look like Larry anymore.

But his shoulders… The flesh of his shoulders is ripped open on both sides, and two, grey-skinned, twig-like arms protrude from each wound.

The long, gangly arms crack at the move, reaching for Sal’s hair and pulling at it.

Larry’s shirt is torn apart, revealing a bleeding wound in his chest that’s just like the ones on his shoulders. But, instead of arms coming from it, eight thin, string-like legs- spider legs- reach out and rest against his chest.

The demon tilts its head, causing Larry’s hair to drape over Sal’s body.  **“Now, why don’t we finish what we started?”** Three voices talk over each other.

“W-what?” Sal is confused for a moment, but then Larry’s body grinds down on him. Their hips rub together, and Sal feels a hardon in Larry’s pants. “Wait!”

Larry stops, and those white eyes stare down at Sal.

He’s scared. He doesn’t want to do this. “Please, don’t-,” But he’s cut off by the grey hands stroking his cheek and Larry’s hands grabbing at his body.

Larry’s hand slides down Sal’s back and grabs at his ass, all while Sal struggles against him.

“Stop!” Sal gets the bravery to shout out to him. But it’s greeted by a hard pull of his hair. The grey hand tugs hard on Sal’s hair, silencing him.

**“Be quiet!”** The voices bark from Larry’s mouth.  **“You’ve been getting away from me all day… I’m not letting you leave this time~,”**

“Okay! Okay…” Sal submits out of fear. He doesn’t want this demon to hurt… He can’t let it hurt Larry anymore.

Sharp fangs latch down on Sal’s neck, digging into the soft skin and drawing blood.

Sal whimpers and grabs at Larry’s back. His hips are grinding again and Sal closes his eyes, trying not to cry. His fist clenched tightly on the torn fabric of Larry’s shirt as blood drips down his neck.

“I love you, Larry…” Sal whispers into his lover’s ear. Though he doesn’t know if Larry can hear him, the man above him freezes.

  
  
  
  
  


Monday, January 24th, 5:12 p.m.

Larry reaches to Sal and tucks back his hair. He sees it now. A horrid bite mark on Sal’s neck, with a purple bruise. Larry doesn’t dare touch it, as it looks painful to the touch.

But he remembers now.

“Lar!” Sal leans back to Larry when tears start to fall down his face. “Larry, it's fine! You didn’t do anything wrong!”

But Larry hides his face in his pillow, trying to fight back sobs. God, even crying hurts his shoulders. 

Sal rubs Larry’s back and strokes his hair. Sal’s not hurt, and nothing is truly Larry’s fault, but Larry feels guilty… He wasn’t there at all. He couldn’t help Sal. This thing, whatever ghost or demon it is, hurt Sal and Larry couldn’t stop it.

Someone knocks on the door and Sal looks back at it. “Uh, who’s there?”

The opens and Lisa pokes her head in. “It’s me.” She walks in, looking exhausted and worn down. Her face is pink from hours of crying over her poor boys, but she still manages the warmest smile when she sits down by the bed.

“Hi,” Larry reaches out to his mom and grabs her hand.

“Hi!” Lisa’s voice is cheerful and happy as usual. She’s a breath of fresh air after a day of Larry lying in bed, doing nothing because of his pain. Lisa could tell from the moment she walked in that something was wrong, though. The tension in the room is off-putting. “You’re not any meds yet, right, Larry?” 

Larry shakes his head slightly. It hurts his neck to do so. “Sal, what am I on again?”

Sal sighs. “You had too many infections, so you’ve about six meds going on… None of which would mix well with the proper painkillers.”

Lisa purses her lips and strokes her thumb across Larry’s knuckles. “I just talked to Dr. Elliott, and she said you seem to be doing well now!”

The only hope that gives Larry is the hope for a new drug. He turns his body as much as he can, “Mom… Did you talk to the police?” It was an out-there question, but he’s seen his mom a few times already, and she hasn’t said anything about the police coming to her.

Larry knows Sal was interrogated, as he was found at the scene. So Lisa, the mother of one of the victims, should have been targeted, right?

But Lisa shakes her head. “I know you mean an interrogation, and no. I was only called when you boys went missing, and when you were brought here.” Lisa has no air about her that says she’s wondering about it, but Larry does.

Sal looks from Lisa to Larry with a confused glare. He’s sharing the same thought with Larry. Wouldn’t everyone and anyone be a suspect? Why was Lisa let off the hook?

“Honey, you’re shivering…” Lisa grabs the blankets and pulls them to Larry’s shoulders.

The pressure on the stitches hurts him slightly, but Larry now notices how cold it is. “Thanka, mom.” But it’s hard to get comfortable under a blanket with an I.V tube in your arm, sticking out of the blanket. It was taped down, but Larry is getting to the point of wanting to rip it out so he can rest comfortably.

“Um,” Sal tries to find his words. He finds it too weird that Lisa hasn’t asked once since Larry has woken up. “Lisa, did the police tell you what happened to us?”

“Oh, yes!” Lisa nods. “I mean, well, the told Larry seemed to have been attacked by an animal. That was when he was still out.”

An animal? An animal carved shapes into Larry’s flesh?

“I didn’t ask you two yet, ‘cause Larry was so tired still.” Lisa smiles at her son. 

Sal looks up at Lisa. From the side profile, she looks almost exactly like Larry. “They said he was attacked by an animal… And I wasn’t?”

“That’s just what it looked like from the scratches,” Lisa informs them. “Yes, I thought it was bizarre how only Larry was attacked, which is why I wanted to ask you two-,”

“Excuse me,” A nurse opens the door and sticks her head in. Behind her in the hallway is a cart of medical supplies. “Sorry to interrupt, but I need to give Lawrence an exam.”

“Oh, all right!” Lisa says happily, but she slouches when she stands up. 

Sal is the same. Neither of them wants to leave, but  _ ‘doctor’s orders.’ _

Lisa pets Larry’s hair, “We’ll see you in a few minutes.” She turns to leave and smiles politely to the nurse on her way out.

Sal strokes Larry’s hair for a few more seconds, then hesitatingly pulls away. “I’ll be right back, Lar…”

“Bye,” Larry rests against the pillow, watching Sal slowly walk to the door.

Sal walks past the nurse, who smiles politely just as Lisa did. But Sal’s stomach turns just like it did when Larry smiled at him in the woods… It’s an unnerving smile, but unlike the Demon-Larry, the nurse’s smile seems more forced. Like it pained her to do it. Sal gets to the hallway and watches the nurse carefully as she pushes the cart into the room. He glances up to Larry, who was on the verge of falling asleep, and the door is closed…

“Sal?” Lisa gets his attention from the door. “Do you want to get some food? I know you haven’t eaten yet.” Her warm, kind smile helped Sal get some peace.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming.” Sal walks closer to her, but he can’t help but feel that somethings wrong.

In Larry’s room, Larry watches the nurse as she brings the cart over to his bed.

“All right,” The nurse skillfully sets out pills and bottles to fill the syringes next to them. “You’re gonna like this; From the last check-up, all your infections are cleared, and all the meds for them are out of your system. That means we can get you a painkiller.”

The nurse smiles up at Larry, but it feels… off. That smile gives Larry a deja vu feeling, a familiar feeling of dread… “What kinda painkiller?”

The nurse fiddles with the I.V bag and machines, but it’s different from the other nurses. She seems to have no purpose, and fiddles aimlessly to seem busier.

“Hello?” Larry shrinks down a bit in the bed. “I asked you a question.” Somethings not right…

The nurse finally turns to Larry and pulls down the blanket to reveal his arms. She turns to the cart and grabs a syringe and bottle of medicine.

“How many drugs am I on right now?” Larry tries asking another question. He gets no response again.

The nurse sets the empty bottle back on the cart and grabs Larry’s arm. “Now, this will pinch a bit, but it will numb you out quickly. Dr. Stanley says you shouldn’t feel a thing-,”

“My doctor is Dr. Elliott.” Larry cuts her off. He tries to pull his arm away, but the nurse tightens her grip on the already weak man.

“Aw, poor thing. You seem to be a bit out of it. This should perk you up a bit too!” She holds Larry still and sticks the needle in.

“Wait, wait-!” As the syringe is pushed down, it feels like lava being injected into Larry’s veins. The pain is so bad that Larry can’t even scream. He can’t see either… Or hear. When the nurse lets go of him, Larry thrashes his arm. His eyes roll back and his ears ring loudly. He opens his mouth to scream, but only a strange clicking sound comes from his throat.

“Don’t worry.” The nurse’s voice is the only thing Larry can hear. “Soon enough, you won’t feel anything.”

**_“Dead men can’t feel pain.”_ **

  
  
  
  
  


Sunday, January 23rd, 2:33 p.m.

Sal’s hand trails up Larry’s arms, avoiding the grey arms coming from his shoulders and grazing gently up his neck. The grey arms go stiff next to Sal’s face as he gets close to Larry’s ear. “I love you.” He whispers gently. “I love you more than anything, Larry…”

A strange clicking sound comes from Larry’s throat and he grinds his body roughly down on Sal. 

Sal wraps his legs around Larry’s waist and grabs at the back of his shirt. “I love you…” He whispers one more time, and Larry buries his face in the crook of Sal’s neck.

The grey arms retreat from Sal’s hair suddenly, and the rest of Larry’s body goes stiff. He mumbles something into Sal’s neck.

“I can’t hear you, Larbear.”

“Sa-ally…” For the first time, Sal hears Larry’s voice. His real voice. No demons, just Larry.

Sal’s heart stops and he quickly wraps his arms around Larry’s neck and holds him close. “It’s okay, Baby,” Sal shushes him. He gets a completely different feeling from him now. He’s not afraid of him.

“Hmm…” Larry groans and pushes himself up. He looks down at Sal, with dark, honey brown eyes. Sal missed those eyes so fucking much…

Sal reaches up hesitantly and cups Larry’s face. He strokes his thumbs down Larry’s cheeks, getting the black liquid on them. “I love you, Larry…”

A streak of black gets washed away by a real tear as Larry begins to cry. “I love you too…” He hunches over and tears land on Sal’s face.

Sal stares up at Larry for a moment, then he carefully pulls him down, closer to Sal’s face. He brings him close enough so all he can see are those honey eyes. “I know you can fight this, and I know you’re strong enough.” Sal closes the gap between them when he locks his lips with Larry’s.

The kiss is warm, soft, and sweet. Sal runs his fingers up the sides of Larry’s face, then gets them tangled in his brown hair. It feels like the kiss lasted for hours, making Sal feel light as a feather… The next thing Sal knew, someone was shining a light in his face.

It was suddenly dark, and police and paramedics were surrounding them.

Someone stuck a needle in Sal’s arm, and it made him sleepy and slump over. The next he knew after that, he was at the hospital.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Might be a bit of a spoiler warning, but I feel the need to clarify:
> 
> The ending of this story isn't gonna be super tragic. You can see from the tags, a lot of shit is gonna happen, but I promise not to rip your hearts out and stomp on them. \m/


	11. Cult

Cold winter air pierces Sal’s lungs like glass. The snow had started to fall again, and soft flakes landed in Sal’s hair.

Standing on the roof of Addison apartments wasn’t something Sal usually did alone. He almost always had someone with him. Most of the time it was Larry…

When Sal and Lisa had returned to Larry’s room at the hospital, it was empty. They hurried to the front desk to figure out what was going on and were told that no one named “Lawrence Johnson” was ever checked in.

Lisa called the police, but the officers didn’t question a thing after being told that Larry never checked in. Lisa got in trouble for wasting their time.

Now, standing on the roof alone, Sal leans over the edge, watching the ground below.

He holds his hand out and snowflakes land in his palm. They look pretty as they fall. There’s something about snow and rain falling from the dark, night sky that Sal finds so beautiful.

Sal looks up to the dark sky, and can almost see the stars that are hidden behind snow clouds. He can count what few he sees.

“Snow is so pretty.” He says out loud. Who is he talking to? He wants it to be Larry. “Look at how cool it looks, piling up on the ground.” Sal points down to a heap of snow near the street.

“They just float to the ground gently, but the wind is breaking them into pieces…” Sal knows quite a bit about snowflakes. As a child, he loved the snow. He read every book and studied every article he could find about frozen rain. By the time he reached his teens, Sal could tell how everything about snow.

They’re so fragile that the wind alone breaks them, but they still float gently to the ground.

“They’re all different from one another because they all break in different ways.” Sal hangs his head over the edge of the building and reaches his hand out to catch more flakes. “Every one of them is broken… And they’re still so pretty.” Sal wonders, as he looks to the ground below, what would happen if he fell.

Well, he knows what would most likely happen, but weird stuff has been happening for weeks. Would it be so bewildering if Sal somehow survived? Snowflakes fall through the freezing air gently, hit the ground, and shatter into pieces… So beautiful, all those broken pieces are.

But, if enough piled up, those broken pieces become dangerous.

People can’t walk in it and shovel it away. Sometimes, shovels alone aren’t enough. Some people don’t have warm homes to hide away from the snow and spend the night shivering from the punishing weather.

All the brightly colored flowers that grew during the summer, so vibrant and full of life, are all buried under the snow. Dead, frozen, and unseen.

Sal watches the snow fall all around him. Such a beautiful, harsh thing it is.

“I wanna fall,” Sal says. “I’ll be like a snowflake. I’ll fall gently, then shatter at the ground.” Sal straightens up and turns around. He sits on the ground with his back against the edge wall. “Or fall like a rock… An ugly, lumpy, grey rock, covered in dirt…” Sal runs his hands through his hair, the cold making his fingers numb. “It’ll get thrown into the lake, and sink to the bottom. No one will ever remember it. It’ll be forgotten…”

Sal stands up again and looks over the edge. He watches the ground, imagining himself hitting the ground. “I won’t fall like a snowflake… I’ll fall like a rock, sinking into the muddy lake.”

Sal takes a deep, painful breath. The cold air hurts his lungs, but he doesn’t want to seek warmth…

_ “Or you’d fall like a feather.” _

  
  
  
  
  


It’s dark. Larry can’t see a thing.

No, he’s blindfolded. He can feel a rough fabric tied around his head, covering his eyes. 

He can hear a soft, distant sound. Like he’s hearing it through the walls… He can hear people crying.

Larry tries to move his body, but he’s restrained. He’s lying on some sort of plank, with his hands tied to two more at the sides. It’s like he’s on a cross.

Larry hears a door creak open in the distance and the people crying gets suddenly louder.

They’re all screaming.

Another door creaks open, this time louder. It’s in the room Larry’s in.

Larry tenses up, trying not to move. He doesn’t know what good it will do, but maybe pretending to still be knocked out will help him.

Footsteps follow up to where Larry lies still. They come to a stop above Larry’s head, and two hands grab the planks that Larry’s arms are tied to.

The person starts to pull, moving the cross and Larry every so slightly. But Larry’s breath gets caught in his throat from his nerves and his chest heaves as he tries to breathe again. The person stops and quickly lets go of the cross.

“Oh, shit…” The person speaks, and Larry hears them quickly run out of the room.

He’s fucked. That’s all Larry can think. He’s fucked.

_ “Snow is so pretty.”  _

Larry hears a voice in his ears. Is that Sal’s voice?  _ “Look at how cool it looks, piling up on the ground.” _ It is Sal’s voice. 

Sal sounds so close like he’s speaking from the room Larry’s in. It brings Larry a sense of comfort like he’s not tied and blindfolded right now.

_ “They just float to the ground gently, but the wind is breaking them into pieces…”  _ Sal knows a lot about snow. Larry found it adorable how much Sal knew about it. It was all knowledge Sal attained through childhood, but it still stood. But, Larry can’t help but hear a hint of sadness in Sal’s voice.

_ “They’re all different from one another because they all break in different ways. Every one of them is broken… And they’re still so pretty.”  _ Sal feels broken himself. Larry knows this. That’s why he was so scared of starting a romantic relationship with Sal. 

He didn’t want to drain Sal any more than he already is. But, he can’t help how beautiful and wonderful Sal is, even with every flaw he has. 

There was silence for a moment, and Larry can hear footsteps coming from behind walls.

“What do you mean he’s still alive!?” Someone’s muffled voice barks loud enough for Larry to hear.

This is bad. He has to stay quiet…

_ “I wanna fall.” _

“NO!” Larry shouts as he hears Sal’s voice one more time.

He hears a door swing open and storms over to him.

The blindfold is ripped off, and Larry is faced with a tall person in dark robes and a dog-like mask on their face.

The masked person stares down at Larry for a moment then turns around to a group of three people, all in dark robes. “I thought you gave him the injection…”

“I-I did!” One of the people speaks in a voice that Larry recognizes at once. The nurse from the hospital.

“Then why is he still alive!?” The masked man shouts.

“I don’t know! He  _ was _ dead when I brought him here!”

“You expect me to believe that!?”

The other two figures stay silent for a while, then one raises their hand. “Um, sir? Uh… Some of us can back her up…”

The masked man places a hand on his hip. “Excuse me?”

“You can ask around. About seven of us were there, and we all checked him… He was dead when Violet brought him in…”

_ “I won’t fall like a snowflake… I’ll fall like a rock, sinking into the muddy lake.”  _ Sal’s voice breaks Larry from his trance on the people.

The masked man walks closer to the other three. They’re all talking, but Larry can’t hear them.

“Or you’d fall like a feather,” Larry speaks quietly. None of the other people pay any mind to him as he speaks. He can only hope that, somehow, Sal can hear him like he hears Sal. “You’ll float forever, flying around like a feather… And you’ll never hit the ground.”

The masked man grabs someone by their arm and drags them out of the room. The other two follow closely behind.

Larry is left alone. “I’ll catch you.” He speaks a bit louder and struggles against his restraints. He can’t let Sal fall. “I’ll be there to catch you. No matter where you are, no matter how far I’ll have to go, I’m always going to catch you…”

Larry can hear Sal, but he’s not speaking. It’s only sniffles and whimpers that he hears. Larry clenches his fists, gripping onto the ropes that restrain him. “Please don’t cry…” Hearing Sal forces tears to slip down Larry’s temples.

_ “I-I can’t! I don’t know where you are!”  _ Sal sobs and Larry’s heart shatters. He isn’t there to comfort his Baby Blue.

To make matters worse, Larry doesn’t even know where he is. He scans the room, trying to find any sign to give away his location. “Sal, how can we hear each other?” He says out loud.

_ “I don’t-, I don’t know…” _ Sal coughs. He sounds exhausted and cold. 

_ Snap! _

Oh…

Larry lifts his right arm, covered in rope burns. The rope snapped. Larry unties his other hand as fast as possible, then he’s able to stand up.

When Larry gets up and looks back, he sees he was indeed on a cross. “Sal, can you still hear me?”

_ “Yes!” _

Larry looks around the room again, and finally sees a tiny window near the ceiling. He must be in some sort of basement.

Larry runs to the window. He’s tall enough to reach it fine and look out. He sees a cobblestone path, lit up by lanterns on the ground. But it’s too dark to make out anything else.

_ “Larry?” _

“I’m still here, Blue.” Larry finally sees it. He can see the trees in the distance, reaching low like he’s on top of a hill. “Sal, I think I know where I am…” A million questions run through Larry’s head. How can he and Sal hear each other? Is it Sal? Or is the demon playing tricks on him?

_ “Where!?” _ Sal all but shouts.  _ “I’m at Addison apartments, I’m going-,” _

__ Larry doesn’t hear the rest of that sentence. It’s cut off suddenly when Larry hears the door behind him creak open.

He turns around quickly and sees only one person. They’re short and covered by a black cloak and a white mask. 

The person freezes in the doorway when they see Larry. They both stare at each other like deer caught in headlights.

“Hello,” Larry says then quickly runs to the door.

The masked person panics and tries to shut the door, but Larry gets there in time and shoves them out of the way.

Larry throws the person to the floor and gets out of the room. He looks around and sees long, dark hallways on either side of him, and another door in front of him.

“Fuck…” The masked person scrambles on the ground, trying to get away. But Larry grabs them by the back of the cloak and heaves them up. “No- No! Let go!”

“No, come here, you little fucker!” Larry struggles with the masked person and drags them back into the room from before.

Larry is able to slam them against the wall and grab the white mask. He rips it off and sees an older woman, around Lisa’s age. She has bright green eyes and a fair face… She looks similar to someone that Larry’s seen before.

“All right,” Larry keeps a hand over the woman’s mouth to keep her from screaming and kicks the door shut.

The woman tries to kick Larry’s legs out and punch him in the head. Fortunately for Larry, she’s too small to do any damage.

Larry pins her to the wall and presses his arm to her neck. “Where the hell are we!?”

“You’re supposed to be dead!” She yells at him.

Larry presses his arm hard into the woman’s neck, choking her. Saliva gets spit into his face as he chokes her. “Tell me where we are!” Larry pulls his arm back. He doesn’t want to kill her, but she better answer him soon. “If you don’t answer me in ten seconds… You!” Larry finally remembers the woman’s face and grabs her by the shoulders.

“Hey, stop!” She shouts at him.

“You’re the fucking nurse! You tried to kill me!” 

The woman tries to break free of Larry’s grip, but he’s much stronger than her.

“Lady, you have no idea how much trouble you’re gonna be in-,” Larry gets cut off by something hitting him in the head. He stumbles back, and the woman breaks free from him.

Another cloaked person stands by the door with a plank in their hand.

“Thank you!” The woman picks her mask up from the ground. “Keep an eye on him! I need to get Kenneth!” She places her mask back on and runs out of the room.

But Larry regains his structure fast. He quickly gets to his feet and sees the other cloaked figure raise the plank again, but Larry grabs it before it’s brought down on him. Unlike the small woman, this person is Larry’s size, causing a much bigger fight to break out.

They struggle against each other for a moment, then Larry manages to get the plank from the other’s hands. He tries to swing it back, but it’s knocked out of his hands.

The other grabs Larry’s shoulder and pushes him down, but elbows them in the stomach. Larry gets them off for a second and makes a break for the door. But he’s tackled from behind before he gets there.

Larry’s wrestled to a chokehold, and he racks his nails down the other’s arms as hard as he can.

“If you go out there, you’re dead, dumbass!” The other angrily whispers in an all too familiar voice.

Larry tenses up for a moment as shock settles in. “Travis!?”

“SHHHH!” Travis lets go of Larry and throws him against the wall. He rips the white mask off and Larry sees the familiar, angry face.

“Travis-,”

“There are twenty-seven cultists out there,” Travis points to the door. “You go out that door, and we’re both fucked.” Travis walks up to Larry and presses a stone on the wall near his head.

On the far wall, under the tiny window Larry was looking out before, the stones separate. A passageway open, dimly lit by a few lanterns inside.

“What the fuck?” Larry gasps.

“Come on.” Travis grabs Larry’s arm and roughly pulls him away. He drags Larry through the passageway and they descend a set of stairs and Larry hears the stones close behind them.

“What the hell are you doing?” Larry questions Travis. “How the hell am I supposed to trust you?”

“Look,” Travis stops walking suddenly and looks back at Larry. “I wanna get out of here just as much as you do. Now, I know you’re not as big a loser as you seem to be, and you’ve been sneaking off with Sally Face for almost a while.” Travis reaches up and taps a finger against Larry’s forehead. “That means you can now talk to him in your head. I’ll explain that when we’re safer.”

“What!?” Larry would rather an explanation now, but Travis grabs his arm again and starts dragging him.

“Tell Sally Face we’ll be at the bottom of Phelp’s Ministry hill in a few minutes.”

Larry watches Travis in confusion for a moment before speaking. “Uh, Sal?”

_ “Where are you!?” _ Sal’s panicked voice shouts in Larry’s ears.  _ “I’ve been trying to talk to you! What happened!?” _

“Uh, we’ll be at the bottom of Phelp’s Ministry hill in a few minutes?” 

_ “Who the fuck is ‘we’?” _

Larry bites his lip, trying to think of how he’d explain. “ _‘We’_ , as in me and Travis The Friendly Cult Member.”

“Never call me that again.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, boy! This took me a minute! Sorry about the delay, I had a bunch of holiday stuff to do. Anyway, here's Travis being a good boy to make up for the delay.


	12. Safety

Sal kicks up snow as he runs down the sidewalk. He slips on ice a few times, but he never slows down. With only the street lamps lighting his way, Sal runs to the Phelp’s Ministry on top of the hill.

He can’t explain how he knows, but he knows that was Larry he was talking to. No tricks of demons. Just Larry somehow speaking to him.

Sal pants and heaves on frigid air, burning his lungs, but he can’t slow down. The dark hill comes into view as Sal gets a painful stitch in his chest. But he’s desperate to find Larry.

  
  
  
  
  


Travis pulls Larry through dark, winding corridors. It’s like a maze to Larry, with every door and archway identical to the last. He loses track of where they’re going quickly, but Travis seems to know this place like the back of his hand.

Travis leads them through passage after passage until he comes to a sudden halt in front of a closed, iron door. 

Larry gets blocked by Travis’s arm as they stand in front of the door. The corridor is lit by a single torch that’s mounted to the wall next to the door, making it the only one visible. “What are you-,”

“Shhh!” Travis shushes Larry. “Someone might be in there!” He whisper-shouts.

They stand in silence for several seconds, then Travis grabs the iron doorknob and turns in slowly.

The door is opened just a crack, and Travis pokes his head in. “Okay, all clear.” Travis opens the door the rest of the way and reveals a brightly lit room.

The room is lit by actual, electrical light bulbs. Unlit candles are forming a circle in the center of the room, and they’re the only notable thing in there. Other than them, nothing is exciting about this room.

“What’s this?” Larry whispers to Travis. His anxiety is still mounting at the thought of someone hearing them.

“This is where they do rituals,” Tavis says nonchalantly and pulls Larry to the other end of the room.

There is only one other door in the room, and when Travis opens it, they’re hit by freezing air.

Larry gets startled for a second. Are they outside? He’s dragged out, and his bare feet touch frozen grass. They’re outside!

“Okay, the actual Ministry is kinda far from here, and that’s where Sally Face is gonna meet us.” Travis begins to walk through the dark. “Follow me,” He calls back to Larry.

Larry tries to follow after Travis, but it proves to be difficult for multiple reasons.

One: Larry is barefoot. The ground is freezing, and sharp rocks and sticks poke his feet at every angle.

Two: Larry’s dressed in only a white t-shirt and black shorts. The cult must have dressed him, and it’s better than a hospital gown, but it’s the middle of winter.

And three: Larry loses sight of Travis in the darkness within seconds.

“Uh, hey! Friendly Cult Member, I can’t fucking see you!” Larry calls out into the darkness.

Footsteps come back to Larry, “You don’t know how close I am to leaving your ass out here.” Travis’s rough hand grabs Larry’s wrist. “You’re lucky I want out of this shit. Watch your step,” Travis pulls Larry away, and they walk through the frozen-over land.

Larry tries his best to carefully walk, but his feet start to hurt in no time. They’re freezing, sticks are stabbing into them, and they might be bleeding.

To make matters worse, Larry’s shivers from the cold start to render him immobile. But that’s when they stop walking.

“W-what are-,” Larry starts to stutter out.

“Fuck…” Travis groans out in annoyance. He knows they won’t be getting far if Larry’s too cold to walk. “Come on, it’s literally a few feet away. We’re almost there.” Travis tries to pull Larry away, but the other barely moves.

Larry’s feet start to feel numb, and he can’t bring them off the ground enough to walk. His shivering is getting so bad that he starts to curl in on himself.

“Larry, come on-,” 

“I can’t!” Larry cuts Travis off with a whisper. He can’t even raise his voice. He’s so cold.

Travis sighs and leans his head back. “Don’t make me do this…”

“Do what?” Larry’s eyes adjust a bit more to the darkness, allowing him to see the annoyed look on Travis’s face better. “I’m serious, Dude. I can’t move-,”

Larry yelps as Travis ducks down and wraps his arms around Larry’s waist. “Be quiet!” Travis scolds him and lifts Larry over his shoulder.

Larry’s hair falls down Travis’s back as he’s carried away through the woods. If Larry survives tonight, his pride is gonna take a toll.

  
  
  
  
  


Sal sinks to his knees in the parking lot outside the Ministry. He heaves, trying to catch his breath. He knows Larry’s around here somewhere. He just has to find him. “Come on, get up,” Sal speaks to himself and forces himself to his feet. His legs are weak and unsteady, but he keeps walking.

Sal walks to the grand stairs that lead to the Ministry’s front doors. Larry only said to meet him in the parking lot, but Sal needs to find him now.

“Larry, can you still hear me?” Sal asks. If he and Larry could somehow hear each other before, wouldn’t they still be able to? But Sal’s been trying to speak to Larry for a while now and hasn’t gotten a response. 

And still, Sal only hears his own thoughts in his head.

Sal pushes his prosthetic up, uncovering his mouth to suck in air. “Larry, where are you?” He tries one more time to get an answer.

There’s a snap of a stick off to the distance. Sal hastily puts his prosthetic back in place and looks out to the woods. “Who’s out there!?” Sal calls out. He reaches into his pocket for his phone, planning to use the flashlight.

“Sal!”

The voice made Sal’s heartbeat speed up. He almost drops his phone in shock. “Larry!?”

  
  
  
  
  


Larry was carried over Travis’s shoulder for barely ten seconds when a stick got crushed under Travis’s boot.

“Who’s out there!?”

Travis froze in place, but Larry starts to struggle against him.

He knows that familiar, sweet voice. Sal’s voice gave Larry a sudden burst of energy, and Travis had to set him down.

“Sal!” Larry saw a street light and recognized the area. They were just outside the ministry. 

“Larry!?” Sal called to him, and Larry bolted to the source of his lover’s voice. He lost all feeling of cold and pain, and can only think of Sal standing there, waiting for him.

Sure enough, when Larry turned the corner, around the trees and building, he saw him. Standing at the bottom of the ministry stairs, blank prosthetic staring back at him.

Larry kept running, and now Sal’s running to him also.

Sal isn’t going to believe that he’s seeing correctly until he wraps his arms around Larry.

Neither stops running until they crash into each other. Almost stumbling to the ground, Sal and Larry crush each other in a bear hug. Neither wants to let go, fearing they’ll be separated again.

They’re actually here. Hot tears slipped down both boys’ faces as he held onto each other. They’re both here, alive and together.

“Sally…” Larry buried his face in Sal’s shoulder as he whimpers out the other’s name.

Sal runs a hand through Larry’s hair. “You’re okay…” Sal’s fears don’t all disappear. There is still something deeply wrong.

“I hate to ruin the moment,”

Sal almost jumps out of his skin at the sound of someone talking behind them. He looks over Larry’s shoulder to see… Travis? In a dark cloak with what looks like a necklace of bones hanging around his neck. Is that what Larry meant by  _ “Travis the cult member” _ ?

“But we’re right outside the cult territory.” Travis removes the bone necklace from his neck, Larry just now realizing he was wearing it, and throws it into the woods.

Larry turns to face Travis better, keeping an arm around Sal. “Okay, well, we’ll go back to the apartments-,” 

“No, we can’t.” Travis cuts him off. “Addison Apartments is still cult territory.”

“What!?” Larry’s eyes widened in shock.

“What cult?” Sal speaks quietly. He’s afraid of something, but he doesn’t know what. He’s just afraid of being heard.

“I only know of one place the cult is too scared to touch,” Travis undoes the buttons of his cloak and slides it down his shoulders. “You guys obviously know Simone Bensworth, right? Follow me.” Travis leads the way, with Sal and Larry close behind.

Sal looks Larry up and down. He’s dressed horribly for the weather as Travis leads them a few feet into the woods. No shoes. Legs, and arms bare. “Larry, are you cold?”

“I’m really trying not to think about it,” Larry speaks in a monotone voice. 

“You’ll be fine.” Travis only leads them far enough into the woods so they won’t be seen by passersby. They, however, can still see everything from the streets. Travis follows the street lights until the Phelp’s Ministry is far behind them.

Sal runs a hand up and down Larry’s side. He feels him shiver from the cold, and hopes beyond hope that safety is near.

“Okay,” Travis stops walking and holds his arm out to the other two. “Over there,” Travis points to a small, green house across the street from them. You’d miss it if not for the porch light.

“Oh, yeah,” Sal recognized the location. “We pass by here on the way to the store.” Sal looks up to Larry. “Remember? Ash said Simone lives here.”

“Okay, but how is this place safe?” Larry questions Travis.

“You’d be surprised.” Travis snorts a laugh. That’s a sound Sal and Larry never heard from him. “No matter what the cult does, or how much they tell you they aren’t afraid of anything… The guy who lives here? No one would touch him with a thirty-foot pole.”

“Who, Simone’s dad? Why?” Sal cocks his head to the side as he asks.

Larry shifts on his spot a few times. “Can we have this conversation later? My feet are going numb again.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for taking so long to update, and that the chapter is so short. My mental health took a bit of a dip recently, so I had to take a break.
> 
> I'm better now! So more chapters AND new fics are underway!


	13. The Red Demon

_Ding dong!_

“Simone, check the door!”

Sitting in front of the T.V, Simone pauses her video game and stands from the couch. “On it,” She walks over to the window and peaks through the curtains. “Uh, dad? Travis is here…”

Simone starts to walk to the door, but her father runs out of the kitchen and grabs the doorknob before she can.

The door flies open and the two boys standing behind Travis get startled by it.

Simone’s father watches the three boys with wide, concerned eyes. “You got out?”

Travis nods his head.

Mr. Bensworth puts a hand over his chest like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “Oh, my God. Get in! Get in!” He stands to the side and ushers the boys inside. He then shuts the door behind them and locks five locks.

Sal keeps his arms wrapped around the shivering Larry, trying to warm him up. He arches his head back to look up at Larry. Now in a better light, he can see Larry’s lips are blue. “Do you wanna sit?”

Larry nods his head. He rubs at his runny nose with a shaking hand and carefully walks over to the couch with Sal.

“Hey, guys.” Simone follows them over and watches as they sit on the couch. “What are you guys doing here?”

Sal and Larry both look at each other, speechless. What are they supposed to say? Larry was kidnapped by a cult that summoned a demon to possess him, and Travis brought them to Simone’s house of all places?

“Okay!” Luckily, Simone’s father comes rushing over before either of them can speak, with Travis right behind him. He looks between Sal and Larry a few times. “Which one is the one?”

Travis steps in front of him and points to Larry. “That’s Larry Johnson. He was the dumbass that went to the cabin.”

“Sal dragged me there!” Larry sounds like hell as he speaks. His nose is so stuffed and cold that he sounds no different than when he was badly sick.

“Larry,” Simone pokes in, “Why are you half-dressed in the middle of winter?”

“He got kidnapped,” Travis says bluntly as if it was obvious.

“What!?” Simone shouts, jaw dropped in shock.

“Larry Johnson?” Simone’s dad sits down on the coffee table in front of the couch. “And who is this one?” He gestures to Sal.

“I’m Sal Fisher,” Sal swings his feet a bit, as they don’t touch the floor. He doesn’t feel comfortable in this living room… The feeling of eyes burning into the back of his neck makes him shudder.

“Sal-, Sal Fisher… And Larry Johnson” Mr. Bensworth repeats the names a few times. “Where have I heard of you two before?” He strokes his chin in deep thought.

Larry shrugs. “I’m kinda well known as the town nuisance.”

“Yeah, he is.” Travis follows up.

“No, no, no,” Mr. Bensworth cracks a smile, then quickly goes back to a serious expression. “I know I’ve heard those names.”

Simone crosses her arms and rocks on her feet. “You might have heard me and Ashley talking about them?”

Mr. Bensworth gets a worried expression as he looks up to his daughter. “Unfortunately, that might not be it… But, anyway!’ Mr. Bensworth claps his hands together and points both index fingers at Sal. “If you’re here, you must be the Dame then?”

Sal raises an eyebrow, though no one sees it behind the prosthetic. “The what?”

Travis sits down on the coffee table next to Mr. Bensworth. “You two heard each other while you were apart, right?”

“Yes…”

“Then that means Sally Face is the dame.” Travis stands up and walks away. “God knows how the hell Larry actually managed that.”

Larry looks back and forth between Travis and Mr. Bensworth, completely lost. “I’m still confused…”

“No need, I can explain everything!” Mr. Bensworth jumps up with a giant grin on his face. “I assume neither of you wants to follow a stranger into his basement, so wait right here!” Mr. Bensworth walks over to a door under the staircase, unlocking five locks. “Simone, you’re gonna want to see this, too!” And with that, Mr. Bensworth ran down to his basement.

Simone stood in shock for a moment. “Dad has never shown me what’s in the basement…”

Now that Sal and Larry got to look around, the house is… Strange? The curtains are pulled over the windows, but you can still see metal bars of sorts on them. Every door they see, rather it leads to the outside or not, has at least three locks on it.

“Your house is…” Larry starts to speak to Simone, then catches Travis standing by the bookcase to the side… Checking out a picture frame of butterfly taxidermy. “...Nice?”

Simone snorts and smirks at Larry. “Yeah, I know; Y’all think it’s weird.”

“I like it,” Sal says, leaning over on the couch to see the bookcase. There aren’t many books in it, though. There are more butterfly and moth taxidermy, what looks like a brain in a jar, and some sort of skull with huge eye sockets.

Travis picks up the skull just as Sal’s eyes landed on it. “Simone, what’s this?”

“That’s an owl monkey skull. Her name is Rosie.” Simone gets a smile on her face as she adds the last part.

Mr. Bensworth returns from the basement with a large box in his arms. “Okay, now,” He sets the box on the coffee table in front of the boys. “Where do I even begin with this?” Mr. Bensworth pulls tattered books with yellowing pages out of the box. He flips through one without looking at it, paying more attention to Sal and Larry. “Tell me what you know so far.”

Larry glances down at Sal from the corner of his eye. “Um… Well, uh…”

“Larry’s possessed?” Sal says it more like a question than a statement. “I’m sorry, I’m not too sure what you want us to tell…”

But Mr. Bensworth snaps his fingers and points to Sal. “You’re on the right track. Larry _was_ possessed. He might not be anymore.”

“ _Might_ not be?” Travis, who had been fiddling with the bookshelf, has full attention to the rest of the group. “No, it’s a fact. The Red Demon left him when he was taken from the hospital. Once it’s left, it can’t come back.”

“That is a good point.” Mr. Bensworth flips through the book in his hands again. “The Red Demon can’t possess twice. So, Larry,” Mr. Bensworth leans forward, getting a better look at Larry. “You might not like this, but I need you to describe what the demon looked like.”

“Wha-, Describe what the demon that possessed me looked like?”

Mr. Besworth nods his head.

Simone looks back and forth between her father and Larry, visibly confused.

“Well… Uh, it was,” Larry raises his hand above his head, “Insanely tall… It was really skinny…” That horrible image came to Larry’s mind, and it makes him cringe and shudder. That nasty, drippy face that stood inches away from Larry’s. A skinned human was what he saw in the kitchen before everything went to shit…

“Larry!?” Sal shouts in panic as Larry goes limp against him, slumping down to Sal’s lap.

Mr. Bensworth jumps up and grabs Larry’s shoulder, pushing him back.

Did Larry just fall asleep?

“Don’t worry, this is good!” Mr. Benworth reassures the panicked Sal. “I knew this would happen! It’s a side-effect of spirits leaving bodies; those possessed will become extremely tired while trying to talk about it!”

But that doesn’t comfort Sal at all. It makes him more paranoid than before. He pushes Larry over a bit more and sees his face better. He looks peaceful like there’s nothing wrong. “Is he gonna be okay?”

“He will now,” Mr. Bensworth steps back and sits back down on the table. “He’s no longer possessed. His soul is free from the Red Demon, so you won’t have to worry.” He picks the book back up and flips through again. “He’ll wake up a few minutes-,”

Larry’s eyes pop open and bolts straight up. He looks around the house, confused. “What just happened!?”

Sal wraps his arms around Larry’s chest and pulls him back closer. “You scared the fuck out of me. That’s what happened.”

Larry hesitates, and wraps an arm around Sal, and pats his back. “I’m sorry?” He looks out the corner of his eye and sees a frightened-looking Simone standing by her father.

“Okay, I am so fucking confused!” Simone finally snaps. “Dad! What is happening!?”

Mr. Bensworth stares at Simone, startled. He’s not normally spoken to by his daughter like that. “Okay, okay, I guess we shouldn’t waste any more time.”

“Please.” Sal is just as confused as Simone, and he’s been around for more than she has. Sal links his fingers with Larry’s, holding his hand tight. “Mr. Bensworth, I’m still lost on everything that’s been happening…”

Mr. Bensworth reads through the book, then looks up at the boys. “Well, first things first, I should explain what this _“Red Demon”_ is.” He looks back at Simone with a grim expression. “See, I found all this out when Simone was little… Which is why I never let her go to public school or leave the house that much…”

Simone narrows her eyes at her father and crosses her arms over her chest. “What?”

Mr. Bensworth purses his lips and looks back at Travis. “You mind helping me out?”

Travis looks at the ground, taking a deep breath like he doesn’t want to speak. “The _“Red Demon”_ is the most bullshit excuse for _“higher being”_ that you could ever imagine.” Travis presses his back against the wall and crosses his arms. “There’s a cult in Knockfell that worships it. They’ll do anything to bring it to power, but it’s a _lot_ of work.”

“Exactly.” Mr. Bensworth takes over. “The cult believes the Red Demon will deliver them a higher power, which will turn humans into gods of sorts. But, to quote Travis, it’s the most bullshit excuse for a higher being possible.”

Sal tilts his head to the side. “How so?”

Mr. Bensworth points a finger at Larry. “It can’t survive in the human world without a host.”

That’s why Larry was possessed? This demon needs a human host to survive?

“Wait,” Larry leans forward to Mr. Bensworth. “But you said I’m not possessed anymore. Wouldn’t that mean, like, the demon died?”

“We’ll get to that, but there’s more to explain.” Mr. Bensworth flips the book to the first page. “I started learning about the paranormal activity in this town when Simone was a baby. Many believe that when we die, we go to Heaven or Hell.” Mr. Bensworth raises his hand above his head, “And that Heaven is a world above us,” He lowers his hand to the ground, “And Hell is below us.”

“Well, I learned that that may not be the case.” Mr. Bensworth reads from the book, _“Five days after Simone was born, my mother-in-law, Edith, passed away. One month later, I hear Simone laughing on the baby monitor, followed by what I swear on my life, is Edith’s voice.”_

Mr. Bensworth flips through the book and reads another page. _“Two days after that, my oldest daughter, Rachel, claims to hear her grandmother talking to her in the middle of the night.”_ Mr. Bensworth looks back at Simone, who stands there with wide eyes. “You once even gave a perfect description of her. A woman you never met.”

Simone hugs her body and looks frightened. “I was like, five? I saw an old woman in my bedroom… She said she was my grandma.”

Mr. Bensworth nods his head. “This is what led me to know that the afterlife isn’t nearly that simple. And what led me to find out that Knockfell is a hotspot for paranormality.”

“I know…” Sal pipes in. He straightens up and leans closer to Mr. Bensworth. “I’ve been doing ghost hunts for years. Ever since I moved here. I’ve spoken to ghosts.”

Mr. Bensworth’s eyes widened. “You’ve been able to speak to them?”

Sal nods his head. “My friend, Todd, was able to engineer my GameBoy to actually summon ghosts with it. I’ve met so many ghosts here, that-,”

“It seems no one who has died in this town has passed on?” Mr. Bensworth almost took the words out of Sal’s mouth. “That brings me to what I said about Heaven and Hell. There is no world above or below Earth. From what I’ve been able to gather over the years,” He flips his book to another page. _“The afterlife is here, on Earth. Humans and spirits are separated by a paper-thin veil, that spirits can easily cross.”_

“Okay,” Larry’s hand is shaking. Sal squeezes it, and it helps Larry calm a little bit. “So, this veil just isn’t working around Knockfell or something? Why are there so many ghosts here?”

“That, my boy, is where the cult comes in.” Mr. Bensworth looks sullen as he speaks again. “As I said, the cult worships the weakest demon possible. The Red Demon couldn’t break through the veil, so the cult broke it for him. This means there is no border between Knockfell and the afterlife.”

“If it’s so weak that they had to break this veil for it,” Simone steps in, “Why would they still worship it?”

Travis’s face is dark like Simone just asked the worst possible question. “It’s weak as hell, but it’s evil as fuck.” Travis finally walks away from the wall and sits on the couch next to Sal. “The cult has spent years doing rituals, sacrifices of innocent lives, to find a way to make the demon strong enough to work with them. When the Red Demon was strong enough to possess a host,” Travis nods over to Larry, “They would be able to perform sacrifices through Larry.”

“Through Larry!?” Larry shouts.

“You know what happened,” Travis says it like it’s obvious. “The demon took you over, and it killed Jessie Andrews.”

Larry’s throat goes dry and he gets goosebumps on his arm. That girl he killed at school… “She was a sacrifice?”

Travis nods his head. “That woman you were fighting in the chamber? Did you recognize her?”

Larry thinks back to it, then nods. “She was the nurse that took me from the hospital…” Upon saying that, Larry looks down to his shoulder and adjusts the sleeve… He has no stitches. No scarring. Nothing.

“Yeah, she was the one who had to get you, because she was the one who gave her child to the cult.” The words roll off Travis’s tongue like venom. He looks up at Simone with a hint of grief on his face. “Simone knew Alice. Jessie’s mom. She gave her to the cult.”

Sal wasn’t looking at anyone’s faces. He was holding onto Larry’s arm, and pressing his masked face into his shoulder. He’s starting to feel sick… He can see Larry is staring down at his lap, and he’s breathing heavy.

“When I woke up in that chamber…” Larry lifts his head and looks over to Travis. “They were shocked I was alive… She was supposed to kill me.”

“That’s where the fuck-up happened.” Travis actually starts to smile a bit. “Finding out you were still alive was my chance to escape.”

“See,” Mr. Bensworth hunches over as he speaks. “The demon needed a very specific host, ‘cause it needs a dame.” He points to Sal, “ _‘The dame’_ being someone romantically involved with the host. The dame needs to have someone else that they care about, and that person needs to have a rather bumpy relationship with the dame.”

Mr. Bensworth opens his book and quickly reads a page. “It’s a very complicated thing, which is why it took the cult years to find a host. The dame’s bumpy relationship with the other needs to be getting better, then the cult will sabotage it. This will lead to the dame becoming distressed, which will trigger the host to protect them.” Mr. Bensworth closes the book and sets by his side. “This is the second sacrifice. The demon will take over, and kill the person whom the dame loves, but is distressed by.”

Sal is now sure he’s going to throw up. “My dad…” He sniffs, feels tears start to slip down his face. “He came home drunk… Because the cult did something to make him drink… Then that _thing_ made Larry stab him.”

Travis giggled. Right next to Sal, Travis _giggled._ “That’s where the fuck up happened.”

Sal looks over to Travis in shock. “What?”

Travis bites his lip, trying not to laugh. “Is your dad dead? I know the answer _‘no’_ , ‘cause Larry’s still alive.”

Sal looks up at Larry, who shares the same, shocked expression.

“You see, the sacrifices are to give the demon strength.” Mr. Bensworth points out. “Because the demon was sloppy, and didn’t properly kill your father, it never got the strength.” A slight smile spreads across Mr. Bensworth’s face. “And because the Red Demon needs to keep its host for as long as possible, it will use its own soul to protect the host’s soul. Meaning Larry couldn’t die with the demon within him.”

“So,” Travis leans towards the other two on the couch. “When Alice went to kill Larry at the hospital, which was to release the demon, she hurt the weak-ass thing so bad that it had to go back to the afterlife.”

Sal and Larry look at each other with wide eyes. Larry’s mouth is lightly a gap and he takes a shaky breath. “So, because I didn’t kill Henry, the cult ended up sending the demon back!?” Larry’s arms start to shiver from the cold in the house. He needs better clothes.

Travis smiles wickedly and nods. “My dad is probably pissed right now. Serves him right.”

Sal tilts his head again, this time mimicked by Larry. “What?”

Travis looks at them in disgust. “Don’t do that. Uh, my dad is kinda the,” Travis does air-quotes with his fingers, “ _‘Leader’_ of the cult. Which is why I knew where to find Larry.”

“Okay!” Mr. Bensworth claps his hands. “There is much more that needs to be explained. But first, we need a few more people.” He points to Larry, “You need warmer clothes. Simone!” Mr. Bensworth turns to his daughter, who straightens up at the attention. “There’s old clothes in the coat closest. Please help him find something, would ya?”

Simone nods and reaches a hand to Larry. “But I don't know what will fit with Sal attached to your hip.”

Larry laughs and takes Simone’s hand, and she helps him to his feet.

Sal gets up after them and Simone leads them down the hallway.

Simone opens the hallway coat closet and pulls out a box of old clothes. “You’ve got the same body type that my dad used to have, so you can just take this box into the bathroom and find something that’s warm.” She hands the box over to Larry and points to another door down the hallway. “Bathroom is right there!”

“Thanks, Simone,” Larry smiles at her. He looks back at Sal to make sure he follows as they walk down the hallway.

Simone goes back to the living room, where her dad and Travis were going through the box on the coffee table. “You know, I’ve been looking into what happened at the Bensworth cabin for years now…”

Mr. Bensworth and Travis both stop what they’re doing and look up at Simone.

“Was Hank Bensworth possessed?”

Mr. Bensworth sighs and crosses his arms. “There is still a lot to unpack there… I don’t think he was possessed, but I do think there’s a reason I was the only survivor from that night…”

Meanwhile, down the hall, Sal presses his back against the bathroom door as he watches Larry try on a flannel shirt. “You look cute in flannel!”

Larry side-eyes Sal and smiles as he buttons up the shirt. “I’m not cute.”

“You’re so cute~,” Sal baby-talks and laughs to himself.

Larry gets an old pair of jeans from the box and slides them on.

Sal nods his head in approval. “Now you look like a lumberjack.”

Larry rolls his eyes and fiddles with the collar of the shirt. “I mean, I’ll feel really good about myself if I leave this house with an ax.”

Sal giggles and turns to the door, “I’m gonna see if there’s a coat you can borrow.”

“Thank you, Blue,”

Sal steps out of the bathroom and shuts the door behind him.

Larry pops the shirt collar again, getting it how he likes it. He turns away from the mirror and goes to the door, but his eyes start watering for some reason.

Larry rubs his eyes, but his vision goes black and his eyes start to burn. He steps back to the counter and feels around, trying to find the sink faucet. He eventually gets some water going and rinses out his eyes as best as he could.

When the burning finally stops, Larry can open his eyes again… And sees black being washed down the sink.

“Sal!” Larry shouts the first name that came to his mind. He looks up to the mirror, and his stomach flips when he sees black liquid streaking down his cheeks.

Larry stumbles backward, his throat tightening up from fear as more black liquid pours from his eyes. “Sa-,” He barely gets the name out… His throat actually _is_ tightening up. He can’t scream, he can’t breathe.

“Larry, we got a coat for you!” Sal’s voice calls to him from outside.

Larry opens his mouth, trying desperately to shout for help… And he feels something, like large needles, poking over his tongue.

In a panic, Larry sticks his fingers in his mouth and grabs at the needle, pulling as hard as he could.

He pulls out long, black, thin needles of a sort. They’re connected to something stuck in Larry’s throat, and it’s choking him.

The bathroom door creaks open gently. “Larry?” Sal’s soft voice calls for him again.

With one final pull, Larry gets the lump out of his throat. He’s blinded by the black liquid in his eyes and can’t see what he pulled out… But he can feel those needle legs move and start to crawl up his arm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thought you were getting a peaceful chapter where nothing bad would happen? SIKE!


	14. Phelps Ministry

Sal bolts up from unconsciousness. His chest pings with pain as if someone's stabbed him.

Metal bars surround Sal, trapping him in a small cage in the center of a large, chamber-like room.

Sal's breath picks up, his heart drums in his chest, worsening the pain. He feels the need to scream but fears whatever attention it will draw to him.

He spots the lock on the cage. It's a latch lock. "There is no way it's that easy..." Sure enough, Sal wraps his thin fingers around the metal bar, and the latch doesn't budge. "Come on..." Sal pulls with all his might and the latch barely moves. "Come on-, AAH!" Sal's hands slip down from the lock, and droplets of blood fly off.

Sal quickly tucks his hands between his thighs, soaking his pants in blood. He bites his lip, trying not to scream out, and draws more blood that runs down his chin.

"Oh, my God. Oh, my God." He squeezes his eyes shut, and a stream of tears starts to fall down his cheeks. "Oh, my God..." With as much will as he could muster, Sal lifted his hands and looked down.

With the force of trying to open the lock, Sal's hand had slipped, which ripped off half of his fingernail on his right middle finger.

"Oh, my God, I can't believe that fucking happened." The panic and adrenaline had subsided slightly, leaving only the pain that kept shooting up to his elbow.

"Larry..." He was the only thing that came to Sal's mind. The last thing Sal remembered was opening the bathroom door and finding Larry slumped on the floor, with a large, black spider crawling up his face. What happened after that? Was Larry okay?

Sal didn't want to think the worst, but if they're were captured by the cult, then there wasn't much possibility that any good was happening.

Bearing through the pain in his still bleeding finger, Sal gets to examining his cage.

He was in no better state of mind than before. In pain and bleeding, he's just as panicked as he was when he first woke up. But, a horrible idea came to Sal's mind. It made him cringe by just the thought, but he didn't see any other option.

Sal stuck his bleeding finger through the bars, near the latch, and slowly presses the wound to it.

Sal squeezed his eyes shut again, trying to bear through the pain. It burned like hell as the blood dripped down the latch, and possibly infected Sal's finger.

Sal finally pulls back and wraps his other hand around the latch and pulls.

With the lubricant of his blood, the latch pops open, and the cage door creaks down.

"Okay," Sal carefully crawls out, quietly as possible. "I can do this." Out of the cage, he sits on his knees for a moment, looking around the chamber.

There's only one door to the room and no windows or vents. Sal's only got one place to go.

Sal grunts as he gets to his feet, cradling his hand. "Oh, fuck, it burns..." His shoulders are heavy, his knees are shaking, and the ground below him seems to sway. The ground seems almost welcoming for him to fall to, and lie there for a moment.

 _'Larry needs you!'_ The thought kept Sal on his feet. _'Don't let some pain stop you.'_

Sal walks up to the door and presses his ear to it. Hoping the door isn't too thick, Sal tries to hear anything on the other side.

After a minute of silence, Sal grips the doorknob and carefully creaks the door open. He peaks through the small crack, seeing a long hallway lit by torches. He doesn't see any movement nor hear any voices, so he opens the door all the way.

Sal just as carefully closes the door behind him, keeping a sharp eye on the hallway.

His nerves cause him to get spooked by his own shadow, shifting on the wall by the flickering flames of the torches. He quickly collects himself and tip-toes down the hall.

Straining his ears to hear any hushed voice or door opening, Sal shuffles his bare feet on the cold stone floor. His main goal is to find Larry. He has a strange gut feeling that Larry is here, he just needs to find him.

Sal stops at the end of the hallway, where it splits down two more corridors. He tilts his chin up, quieting his shaky breathing. Which way will get him closer to Larry?

"But I thought he needed to be dead?"

Sal's breath chokes him once he hears the people speaking. Down the left corridor, around the corner, a light moves closer as people approach.

In a panic, Sal looks around the almost vacant hallway to find a hiding place.

Adrenaline takes over, and Sal quickly and quietly shuffles his feet down the right corridor. He barely makes the corner before he sees the torchlight flick into view around him, signaling the people had turned the corner.

Sal finds a door wide open, and the room lit up with no one inside. He ducks in, starting to feel dizzy again.

 _'No, come on,'_ He thought to himself. _'_ _Don't get all weird.'_ But it was nerve-racking to think of what would happen if the cult found him. How did Larry get away the first time?

Travis had come to save Larry.

 _'_ _If you could show up right now, Travis, that would be great.'_ Sal collected himself and anxiously made his way back to the door.

He listens closely, not hearing anything else. He sees nothing down the halls and deems it safe for now.

 **_'_ ** _Please be okay,_ _Larbear_ _...'_  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


"Fuck!"

Several things fell out of the medicine cabinet and into the sink when Ashley opened it. "Goddamn it!" She hastily picks everything up and shoves it all back into the cabinet.

She gets a neon pink band-aid and wraps it around her right thumb. She had snagged it with a pair of scissors while cutting up an old shirt she found in her closet.

It was a habit Ashley had when she was stressed or anxious about something. She would cut up old clothes and sew them to make new things.

She picked it up with Simone, as a way to kick her old habit. It's been nice not having her mom make constant comments about her nails being bitten to the nub.

Ashley sighs and goes to close the cabinet, only to have a bottle of cough medicine fall out before she does. "You have got to be kidding me..."

Once Ashley returned to her room, she got back to snipping away at the navy blue shirt. Why was she stressed? Larry had disappeared from the hospital last night, and the police aren't doing shit.

Now, after a few hours of trying to contact Sal, he seems to be gone, too. Ashley went to Addison apartments to check on him, but his drunken father was no help. Neither Todd nor Lisa had heard from him either.

After a while of aggressively cutting the shirt, Ashley was interrupted by loud banging on the front door, that thundered through the house.

Ashley sucks in her breath and carefully pokes her out around the corner from her room, seeing the front door from there. She was home alone, adding to her anxiety.

"Ash!" Her girlfriend's panicked voice calls out from the other side.

Every ounce of anxiety left Ashley as she ran for the door, throwing it open.

Her heart sank at the sight of Simone, who had a bloody gash on her forehead and a chunk of her blonde hair ripped out.

Ashley wordlessly grabs Simone's arm and pulls her inside, locking the door behind them. She then holds Simone by her shoulders, "Who the hell did this to you?" Her voice was stern and angry, which was out of character for her. Ashley was normally the calm one of her groups, but if someone jumped tiny little Simone...

"Ash, there's a fucking cult in Knockfell!"

That was the last thing Ashley expected her to say. Her eyes were wide with confusion. "What?"

"There's a cult!" Tears stream down Simone's face, mixing with the blood that dripped down her cheek. "They came to my house, and they took everyone!"

"Simone," Ashley shakes her slightly to silence her, "Deeps breaths, please..." Ashley inhales deeply, and Simone mimics it. She gets Simone to mimic the exhale. "A cult came to your house?"

"Yeah..." Simone wipes a tear from her eye, but multiple tears follow. "It's a cult that worships some demon! I'm still confused, but they want Larry and Sal for this demon, and-and-and," Simone's face turned red as she tried to keep a sob back. "They took them! And they took my dad!"

A cult took Sal, and Larry, and Simone's dad. Ashley turned that information over in her brain for a second. "We have to call the cops-," Ashley started to let go of Simone, but the shorter girl grabbed her hand back.

"The police are with the cult!" Simone's hands shake as she holds onto Ashley. "My dad and Travis told me that the police and the hospital are being run by the cult-,"

"Travis?" Ashley raises an eyebrow.

"He was with us," Simone continues to speak quickly, "His dad runs the cult, and it's under Phelps Ministry. He told me the police aren't safe, then giant spiders started coming out of Larry's throat, then these people in black cloaks broke into the house-," Simone starts to stutter, then shakes her head. "Point is, people are in danger! My dad and the boys were taken by the cult! We need to save them!"

Ashley stares at Simone with wide eyes, almost as if she was a total stranger. "...All right."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Two cultists walk down the hallways of the catacombs under the ministry.

The one carrying a torch scoffs at the other. "Bensworth's kid is, like, what? Fourteen?"

"Seventeen." The other says grimly. "Jessie knew her well, but they weren't friends. So, I don't know much about her. For all we know, she could show up and ruin everything..."

"Susie, come on," The other laughs under his breath. "You know how it will go. She'll go to the police, and we'll have her in our hands."

The other rolls her eyes under her white mask. "I don't see how you lost her in the first place."

"Hey, could be worse. You know what they did to Alice, right?"

The other arches her eyebrow under her mask, but the other cult member can still see her confusion. "No? Alice and Phil both had immunity within the cult for sacrificing their daughter, right?"

"Doesn't matter when you fail to kill the Host, then _lose him._ " The cultist gives a wicked-sounding laugh. "Man, was Kenneth mad!"

The cultists open a door to a chamber. "Besides, Susie, as long we don't lose the Dame-,"

"He's gone!"

Both cultists stand frozen in the chamber, staring at a wide-open and empty cage in the center.

"The Dame is gone!"

"Oh, shit..."

Meanwhile, a few long hallways from the chamber he started at, Sal was hiding in another room. Once again, he was trying to overcome dizziness.

Sal clutches his chest, getting a stabbing pain. _'Breathe. You're okay.'_ He breathes deeply through his nose, then he hears several people screaming from outside the room.

_"The Dame is gone!" "Find him!"_

He's fucked.

There's another door in the room other than the one he came through. It seems to be his only option.

Sal runs to the door and listens closely for any sound on the other side. Nothing. So he opens it slowly.

To Sal's shock, he's greeted by another room with a window on the other side. Sunlight pours through the window, and Sal can see distant trees. It seems almost too good to be true.

Sal runs to the window and gets on hit tip-toes to peer out. The window is iced-over, but he can still make out the front lawn of the Phelps Ministry. As if whatever God has decided he's had enough suffering, for the time being, he can make out Ashley and Todd walking up the lawn.

The fear of making any noise was still strong in Sal, but he still tapped a loud as possible on the glass window.  
  
  
  


Outside, the snow crunched under Ashley's boots as she trekked ahead of Todd. She had called him for help after Simone showed up at her house earlier that day.

Todd had the GearBoy in hand, Sal having left it at his apartment. Todd fiddles aimlessly with the GearBoy's buttons, hoping it will be enough to figure out what's going on. Ashley didn't know much about this _'cult'_ herself, so he didn't know anything either.  
  


_**Tap tap tap** _   
  


Ashley froze on the spot, "What was that?"

Todd shrugs his shoulders. "I don't know," He steps off the ministry path, going towards the sound.

Ashley wished slightly she was as brave as Todd, being unprovoked by the tapping sound. But it still gave her goosebumps.  
  


_**Tap tap tap** _   
  


"Right there," Ashley points out a small, iced-over window near the ground.

"Oh, God, Ash. How did you see that?" The window was so small and easy to miss. Todd didn't even see it.  
  


_**Tap tap tap tap tap tap!** _   
  


"Sal!?" Ashley could barely see him through the icy window, but she could still see his maimed face and bright blue hair behind it.

"It's Sal!?" Todd echos her.

The GearBoy in Todd's hands abruptly flashes on... Instead of the normal steady green light, it's blinking red.

"Uh..." Todd holds the GearBoy out, "I-I I've never programed that."

Ashley wasn't paying attention, as she pushes and pulls on the window until it creaks open. "Got it!"

Sal had never been so happy for cold air to hit his face. Snow fell into the room, landing on his bare feet, but he didn't care at all. "Oh, my God, guys!" Sal's voice cracked like he was thirteen again.

"Sally, are you okay!?" Ashley reaches her hands through the window, ready to pull Sal up.

_**Thud!** _

Ashley and Sal in sync look back to see the flashing red GearBoy land in the snow, and a much startled Todd cradling his hands.

"It just shocked me!"

"What?" Sal tried to reach up and see the GearBoy better.

Ashley quickly grabs Sal's hands, "Todd, help me!"

Todd kneels and helps pull Sal through the window.

"Quickly, quickly!" Sal scatters out of the window, his bare legs kicking up snow as he tries to get away. "They're looking for me!"

Successfully getting Sal out, Ashley and Todd get to their feet.

"Who's looking for you?" Ashley questions.

"The cult!" Sal's panicked and out of breath. "Larry's still down there!"

"Guys!" Todd grabs both his friends by their shoulders and pulls them away.

The snow was starting to melt around the GearBoy, and the smell of burning plastic fills the air.

"I don't know what's wrong-,"  
  


_**Pop!** _

__

All three fall back in panic as shards of plastic and metal go flying in all directions. They shield their faces with their arms, which get scratched by the flying pieces.

Ashley slowly lowers her arms, a piece of plastic having ripped a new cut in it. She looks down at the burnt-up patch of grass and what remains of the GearBoy. "What... The fuck..."

"It... blew up," Todd stated, sounding dumbfounded.

"Guys," Sal points over to the window where his friends had rescued him. "There is a lot of freaky shit going on down there."

"Yeah, Simone already told me about a cult." Ashley pats Sal's back.

Todd gets to his feet and examines the spot where the GearBoy had exploded. "Did it override? Was there too many energies trying to get through?"

"I know there's still one big and evil energy here," Sal stands up with Ashley and walks slightly closer to the window. "We need to get back down there."

"Sal-,"

"Larry's down there, I know it!" Sal waves his hand to the window. "You said Simone told you about the cult? That means she's okay?"

Ashley nods her head, but she's staring at Sal's hand with her mouth a gap. She grabs Sal's hand and holds it up, examining his bloody finger and half a fingernail. "What the hell happened!? What did they do to you!?"

"I did this myself," Sal jerks his hand away, the warmth of Ashley's hands causing more pain. "I was trying to pry a lock, and my hand slipped." He's starting to get annoyed that Ashley won't focus on the people still inside, captured by the cult. "Simone's dad and Travis might be down there!"

"Yeah, I know," Ashley's face turns grim. "Simone was beaten, but she got away. She told me her dad and Travis might be in trouble."

"I hate to break it to you guys, but," Todd points down at the charred bit of GearBoy on the ground. "Our main tool to getting figuring out what's going on just blew into a million pieces."

Sal flaps his hands around and stomps his feet. "What are we gonna do then!?"

"Get out of here first." Todd grabs Sal by the arm and pulls him away. "If a cult is looking for you, this isn't the place to be!"

Ashley grabs onto Sal's other arm, and they take him into the woods. As far away from the Ministry as possible.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


 _Get up. Get the fuck up_.

Travis plants a hand on the floor, trying to push himself up. He immediately slips on blood. "Fuck..." He tries to breathe through a broken nose and wiping his hand bloody hand on his clothes. "Get up, dumbass..." He forces himself up once again, only to be struck in the back and falling to the floor again.

"This is pathetic." But the voice that spoke the words sounds amused. "How long are you gonna keep trying, Travis?"

Travis forces himself up again. Clutching a rosary in one hand, Travis holds it to his chest. He spits blood out of his mouth as he forces himself to his knees.

A man walks around to face Travis and gives an evil, venomous laugh. "Clarissa went down so much easier."

Travis grits his teeth at his words. Since being taken from Mr. Bensworth's house, he's been beaten bloody, but he never shed a tear. Now, tears begin to wash the blood from his face at the mention of his mother's name

Surrounded by cultists, Travis continues to fight for his life. It almost doesn't feel worth it, but he knows he won't see his mother if he doesn't get Sal and Larry out of here.

Kenneth steps before his son, with a wooden club in hand. "You had a chance to join me. You had a chance to accept the power of the Red Demon, yet you chose to be a disappointment of a child once again-,"

With every ounce of strength Travis could muster, he swopped his arm at Kenneth's ankles and sent the man to the floor.

"Ack-!" Kenneth landed flat on his back with a loud _thud_.

Startled cultists run to their leader's aid, but Kenneth shoos them all away.

"That's it!" Kenneth's voice is loud and angry, but Travis can still hear the humiliation in it.

The bleeding man smirks to himself, only to be quickly grabbed by his shoulders and shoved onto his back. Travis stares up at his father, hiding behind that ridiculous dog mask, and his smile never fades.

"You think you're gonna win, do you?" Kenneth mocks his son.

Travis shakes his head. "I already won." He clutches the rosary in his hand tightly. "Even if you kill me, I've never let the Demon control me. I'll die with my free will. You will die an empty shell of an already pathetic man, with nothing but a weak demon to fill the cracks."

Kenneth stared down at Travis for a moment... Then slowly began laughing. "That's funny! You think you'll be safe from the Demon in death!?"

"Do YOU think the Demon will give you power!?" 

Sharp steel is pressed to Travis's throat. Kenneth's hand shakes with the knife in embarrassment as his son continues to tease him in front of all his followers.

Travis brings the rosary to his face, where his father can see. The beads of the rosary spell out, _'Clarissa.'_ "I'll be with her, while you'll all alone in the dark, fucker."

**_Crack!_**

Silence filled the chamber. Kenneth's followers actually seem to be shocked by the display.

Kenneth gets to his feet and regains his composter. "Go get the Dame. The ritual shall begin as soon as possible." With that, Kenneth leaves the chamber, and his followers pour out behind him.

The chamber completely emptied, leaving only Travis's body in the middle of the floor. Blood continued to pour from the knife still lodged in his neck, turning the rosary red. His eyes blank, empty of life, but the ghost of a smile remains etched on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize to Travis fans for making that death a million times worse than in the game, and not making it a heroic death where he takes Kenneth with him.
> 
> As you can probably tell, I named Travis's mom Clarissa in this.


End file.
